A tart temper never mellows with age, and a sharp tongue is the only edged tool that grows keener with constant use.

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

There are moments of mingled sorrow and tenderness, which hallow the caresses of affection.

It is the divine attribute of the imagination, that it is irrepressible, unconfinable; that when the real world is shut out, it can create a world for itself, and with a necromantic power can conjure up glorious shapes and forms, and brilliant visions to make solitude populous, and irradiate the gloom of a dungeon.

He is the true enchanter, whose spell operates, not upon the senses, but upon the imagination and the heart.

The natural principle of war is to do the most harm to our enemy with the least harm to ourselves; and this of course is to be effected by stratagem.

There is a healthful hardiness about real dignity that never dreads contact and communion with others however humble.