A small country town is not the place in which one would choose to quarrel with a wife; every human being in such places is a spy.

Such is the common process of marriage. A youth and maiden exchange meeting by chance, or brought together by artifice, exchange glances, reciprocate civilities, go home, and dream of one another. Having little to divert attention, or diversify thought, they find themselves uneasy when they are apart, and therefore conclude that they shall be happy together. They marry, and discover what nothing but voluntary blindness had before concealed; they wear out life in altercations, and charge nature with cruelty.

It is not uncommon to charge the difference between promise and performance, between profession and reality, upon deep design and studied deceit; but the truth is, that there is very little hypocrisy in the world.

When the eye or the imagination is struck with an uncommon work, the next transition of an active mind is to the means by which it was performed

Rain is good for vegetables, and for the animals who eat those vegetables, and for the animals who eat those animals.

Many useful and valuable books lie buried in shops and libraries, unknown and unexamined, unless some lucky compiler opens them by chance, and finds an easy spoil of wit and learning.

The applause of a single human being is of great consequence.