The peculiar essence of our banking system is an unprecedented trust between man and man. And when that trust is much weakened by hidden causes, a small accident may greatly hurt it, and a great accident for a moment may almost destroy it.

Poverty is an anomaly to rich people; it is very difficult to make out why people who want dinner do not ring the bell.

A severe though not unfriendly critic of our institutions said that the cure for admiring the House of Lords was to go and look at it.

We see but one aspect of our neighbor, as we see but one side of the moon; in either case there is also a dark half, which is unknown to us. We all come down to dinner, but each has a room to himself.

Whenever two people meet, there are really six people present. There is each man as he sees The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.

The most melancholy of human reflections, perhaps, is that, on the whole, it is a question whether the benevolence of mankind does most good or harm.

Conquest is the missionary of valor, and the hard impact of military virtues beats meanness out of the world.