It is the history of our kindnesses that alone make this world tolerable. If it were not for that, for the effect of kind words, kind looks, kind letters . . . I should be inclined to think our life a practical jest in the worst possible spirit.

The price we have to pay for money is sometimes liberty.

All error, not merely verbal, is a strong way of stating that the current truth is incomplete.

I have never seen the sea quiet round Treasure Island. The sun might blaze overhead, the air be without a breath, the surface smooth and blue, but still these great rollers would be running along all the external coast, thundering and thundering by day and night; and I scarce believe there is one spot in the island where a man would be out of earshot of their noise.

Going for character: why not now, and where you stand?

An aim in life is the only fortune worth finding.

I hate to write, but I love to have written.