Never try to reason the prejudice out of a man. It was not reasoned into him, and cannot be reasoned out.

Heat, ma am! It was so dreadful here that I found there was nothing left for it but to take off my flesh and sit in my bones.

The main question to a novel is -- did it amuse? were you surprised at dinner coming so soon? did you mistake eleven for ten? were you too late to dress? and did you sit up beyond the usual hour? If a novel produces these effects, it is good; if it does not -- story, language, love, scandal itself cannot save it. It is only meant to please; and it must do that or it does nothing.

When I hear any man talk of an unalterable law, the only effect it produces on me is to convince me that he is an unalterable fool

Solitude cherishes great virtues and destroys little ones.

Find fault, when you must find fault, in private, if possible; and some time after the offense, rather than at the time.

He who drinks a tumbler of London water has literally in his stomach more animated beings than there are men, women, and children on the face of the globe.