... I never will allow myself to form an ideal of any person I desire to see, for disappointment never fails to ensue.

People seem to lose all respect for the past; events succeed each other with such velocity that the most remarkable one of a few years gone by, is no more remembered than if centuries had closed over it.

When the sun shines on you, you see your friends. It requires sunshine to be seen by them to advantage!

He who would remain honest ought to keep away want.

The infirmities of genius are often mistaken for its privileges.

Imagination, which is the Eldorado of the poet and of the novel-writer, often proves the most pernicious gift to the individuals who compose the talkers instead of the writers in society.

Conversation is the legs on which thought walks; and writing, the wings by which it flies.