The true wisdom is to be always seasonable, and to change with a good grace in changing circumstances.

Hope looks for unqualified success; but Faith counts certainly on failure, and takes honorable defeat to be a form of victory.

Bright is the ring of words When the right man rings them, Fair the fall of songs When the singer sings them. Still they are carolled and said - On wings they are carried - After the singer is dead And the maker buried.

Sir, with no intention to take offence, I deny your right to put words into my mouth.

All sorts of allowances are made for the illusions of youth, and none, or almost none for the disenchantment of age.

The spirit, Sir, is one of mockery.

I would rather do a good hours work weeding than write two pages of my best; nothing is so interesting as weeding. I went crazy over the outdoor work, and at last had to confine myself to the house, or literature must have gone by the board.