The happy phrasing of a compliment is one of the rarest of human gifts, and the happy delivery of it another.

It was the most earnest ambition I ever had....Not that I ever really wanted to be a preacher, but because it never occurred to me that a preacher could be damned. It looked like a safe job.

I like Joan of Arc best of all my books; and it is the best; I know it perfectly well.

Always obey your parents. When they are present. This is the best policy in the long run. Because if you don't, they will make you. Most parents think they know better than you do, and you can generally make more by humoring that superstition than you can by acting on your own better judgment.

Be careless in your dress if you must, but keep a tidy soul.

It ain't those parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.

All gods are better than their reputation.