The old man laughed loud and joyously, shook up the details of his anatomy from head to foot, and ended by saying that such a laugh was money in a man's pocket, because it cut down the doctor's bills like everything.

Man can seldom - very, very, seldom - fight a winning fight against his training; the odds are too heavy.

No real gentleman will tell the naked truth in the presence of ladies.

An inglorious peace is better than a dishonorable war.

Praise is well, compliment is well, but affection-that is the last and most precious reward that any man can win, whether by character or achievement.

The so-called Christian nations are the most enlightened and progressive ... but in spite of their religion, not because of it. The Church has opposed every innovation and discovery from the day of Galileo down to our own time, when the use of anesthetic in childbirth was regarded as a sin because it avoided the biblical curse pronounced against Eve. And every step in astronomy and geology ever taken has been opposed by bigotry and superstition. The Greeks surpassed us in artistic culture and in architecture five hundred years before Christian religion was born.

God pours out love upon all with a lavish hand -- but He reserves vengeance for His very own.