It is the habitual carriage of the umbrella that is the stamp of Respectability. Robinson Crusoe was rather a moralist than a pietist, and his leaf-umbrella is as fine an example of the civilised mind striving to express itself under adverse circumstances as we have ever met with.

If a man lives to any considerable age, it can not be denied that he laments his imprudences, but I notice he often laments his youth a deal more bitterly and with a more genuine intonation.

Saints are sinners who kept on going.

Jealousy is the most radical primeval and naked form of admiration in war paint, so to speak.

It is a great thing if you can persuade people that they are somehow or other partakers in a mystery. It makes them feel bigger.

But even if we take matrimony at its lowest, even if we regard it as no more than a sort of friendship recognised by the police, there must be degrees in the freedom and sympathy realised, and some principle to guide simple folk in their selection.

Make the most of the best and the least of the worst.