I am always at a loss at how much to believe of my own stories.

A father may turn his back on his child, … . but a mother's love endures through all.

History is but a kind of Newgate calendar, a register of the crimes and miseries that man has inflicted on his fellow-man.

He who would study nature in its wildness and variety, must plunge into the forest, must explore the glen, must stem the torrent, and dare the precipice.

There was one species of despotism under which he had long groaned, and that was petticoat government.

There are certain half-dreaming moods of mind in which we naturally steal away from noise and glare, and seek some quiet haunt where we may indulge our reveries and build our air castles undisturbed.

I was always fond of visiting new scenes, and observing strange characters and manners. Even when a mere child I began my travels, and made many tours of discovery into foreign parts and unknown regions of my native city, to the frequent alarm of my parents, and the emolument of the town-crier.