A banquet is probably the most fatiguing thing in the world except ditchdigging. It is the insanest of all recreations. The inventor of it overlooked no detail that could furnish weariness, distress, harassment, and acute and long-sustained misery of mind and body.

It is a wise child that knows its own father, and an unusual one that unreservedly approves of him.

When you catch an adjective, kill it - perhaps the best possible advice for budding writers.

A public library is the most enduring of memorials, the trustiest monument for the preservation of an event or a name or an affection; for it, and it only, is respected by wars and revolutions, and survives them.

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.

Never have a battle of wits with an unarmed person.

Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection.