[T]he 47th proposition in Euclid might now be voted down with as much ease as any proposition in politics; and therefore if Lord Hawkesbury hates the abstract truths of science as much as he hates concrete truth in human affairs, now is his time for getting rid of the multiplication table, and passing a vote of censure upon the pretensions of the hypotenuse.

Great men hallow a whole people, and lift up all who live in their time.

When you rise in the morning, form a resolution to make the day a happy one for a fellow creature.

You find people ready enough to do the Samaritan, without the oil and twopence.

Solitude cherishes great virtues and destroys little ones.

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.

The two women exchanged the type of glance women use when there is no knife handy.