Research and writing are lonely occupations. It is easy to become discouraged in solitary confinement.

What I wouldn't give to be seventy again!

We have been cocksure of many things that were not so.

Men are idolaters, and want something to look at and kiss and hug, or throw themselves down before; they always did, they always will; and if you don't make it of wood, you must make it of words.

The ideas of the classics, so far as living, are our commonplaces. It is the modern books that give us the latest and most profound conceptions. It seems to me rather a lazy makeshift to mumble over the familiar.

Men, like peaches and pears, grow sweet a little while before they begin to decay.

The riders in a race do not stop when they reach the goal. There is a little finishing canter before coming to a standstill. There is time to hear the kind voices of friends and say to oneself, The work is done.