To marry a man out of pity is folly; and, if you think you are going to influence the kind of fellow who has never had a chance, poor devil, you are profoundly mistaken. One can only influence the strong characters in life, not the weak; and it is the height of vanity to suppose that you can make an honest man of anyone.

Symbols are the imaginative signposts of life.

Till I see money spent on the betterment of man instead of on his idleness and destruction, I shall not believe in any perfect form of government.

I was born in the country of Hogg and Scott between the Yarrow and the Tweed, in the year 1864.

If Kitchener was not a great man, he was, at least, a great poster.

The power to love what is purely abstract is given to few.

Although I am not stupid, the mathematical side of my brain is like dumb notes upon a damaged piano.