There's plenty of boys that will come hankering and gruvvelling around when you've got an apple, and beg the core off you; but when they're got one, and you beg for the core, and remind them how you give them a core one time, they take a mouth at you, and say thank you 'most to death, but there ain't a-going to be no core.

A thing long expected takes the form of the unexpected when at last it comes.

The law of work seems unfair, but nothing can change it; the more enjoyment you get out of your work, the more money you will make.

A sincere compliment is always grateful to a lady, so long as you don't try to knock her down with it.

Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone, you may still exist, but you have ceased to live.

I felt so lonesome I most wished I was dead. The stars were shining, and the leaves rustled in the woods ever so mournful; and I heard an owl, away off, who-whooing about somebody that was dead, and a whippowill and a dog crying about somebody that was going to die.

Happiness ain't a thing in itself - it's only a contrast with something that ain't pleasant.