There is no history; only biography.

Pretension may sit still, but cannot act. Pretension never feigned an act of real greatness. Pretension never wrote an Iliad, nordrove back Xerxes, nor christianized the world, nor abolished slavery.

The secret of ugliness consists not in irregularity, but in being uninteresting.

A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.

A right rule for a club would be,-Admit no man whose presence excludes any one topic.

Make youself necessary to someone.

Intemperance is the only vulgarity.