In a library we are surrounded by many hundreds of dear friends, but they are imprisoned by an enchanter in these paper and leathern boxes.

The adventitious beauty of poetry may be felt in the greater delight with a verse given in a happy quotation than in the poem.

The age of a woman doesn't mean a thing. The best tunes are played on the oldest fiddles.

Every spirit makes its house, and we can give a shrewd guess from the house to the inhabitant.

Perhaps it is the lowest of the qualities of an orator, but it is, on so many occasions, of chief importance,--a certain robust and radiant physical health; or--shall I say?--great volumes of animal heat.

Man is a shrewd inventor, and is ever taking the hint of a new machine from his own structure, adapting some secret of his own anatomy in iron, wood, and leather, to some required function in the work of the world.

The only prudence in life is concentration.