Dignities are like faces; no two are the same.
Sometimes it's things that take the joy out of life, like a blowout when you're hitting sixty or a button coming off of a shirt when you're in a hurry, but usually it's people.
[A] pessimist gets nothing but pleasant surprises, an optimist nothing but unpleasant.
Only fools and philosophers waste time on the unknowable.
I think one or two of the later Holmes stories are among the best.
It is always wiser, where there is a choice, to trust inertia. It is the greatest force in the world.