In the hours of distress and misery, the eyes of every mortal turn to friendship; in the hours of gladness and conviviality, what is our want? It is friendship. When the heart overflows with gratitude, or with any other sweet or sacred sentiment, what is the word to which it would give utterance? A friend.

When the mind loses its feeling for elegance, it grows corrupt and groveling, and seeks in the crowd what ought to be found at home.

Clear writers, like fountains, do not seem so deep as they are; the turbid look the most profound.

The religion of Christ is peace and good-will,--the religion of Christendom is war and ill-will.

Cats ask plainly for what they want.

I strove with none, for none was worth my strife. Nature I loved and, next to Nature, Art: I warm'd both hands before the fire of life; It sinks, and I am ready to depart.

I never did a single wise thing in the whole course of my existence, although I have written many which have been thought so.