A brown spotted lady-bug climbed the dizzy height of a grass blade, and Tom bent down close to it and said, "Lady-bug, lady-bug, fly away home, your house is on fire, your children's alone," and she took wing and went off to see about it -- which did not surprise the boy, for he knew of old that this insect was credulous about conflagrations, and he had practised upon its simplicity more than once.

We had an abundance of mangoes, papaias and bananas here, but the pride of the islands, the most delicious fruit known to men, cherimoya, was not in season. It has a soft pulp, like a pawpaw, and is eaten with a spoon.

If you can't get a compliment any other way, pay yourself one.

To arrive at a just estimate of a renowned man's character one must judge it by the standards of his time, not ours.

Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words.

To trust the God of the Bible is to trust an irascible, vindictive, fierce and ever fickle and changeful master.

Where every man in a state has a vote, brutal laws are impossible.