It's an epitome of life. The first half of it consists of the capacity to enjoy without the chance; the last half consists of the chance without the capacity.

An adventure is something that while it's happening you wish it wasn't.

Which is him?" The grammar was faulty, maybe, but we could not know, then, that it would go in a book someday.

His head was an hour-glass; it could stow an idea, but it had to do it a grain at a time, not the whole idea at once.

A better idea than my own is to listen.

What a wee little part of a person's life are his acts and his words! His real life is led in his head, and is known to none but himself.

No one can write perfect English and keep it up through a stretch of ten chapters. It has never been done.