Sleeping or waking, we hear not the airy footsteps of the strange things that almost happen.

I have laughed, in bitterness and agony of heart, at the contrast between what I seem and what I am!

But, irreverently consorting with these grave, reputable, and pious people, these elders of the church, these chaste dames and dewy virgins, there were men of dissolute lives and women of spotted fame, wretches given over to all mean and filthy vice, and suspected even of horrid crimes. It was strange to see that the good shrank not from the wicked, nor were the sinners abashed by the saints.

If the truth were to be known, everyone would be wearing a scarlet letter of one form or another.

Mankind are earthen jugs with spirits in them.

In this republican country, amid the fluctuating waves of our social life, somebody is always at the drowning-point.

The inward pleasure of imparting pleasure - that is the choicest of all.