If I can, by a lucky chance, in these uneasy days, rub out one wrinkle from the brow of care, or beguile the heavy heart of one moment of sadness; if I can, how and then, prompt a happier view of human nature, and make my reader more in good humor with his fellow-beings and himself, surely, I shall not have written in vain.

He who would greatly deserve must greatly dare.

No man knows what the wife of his bosom is until he has gone with her through the fiery trials of this world.

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.

Acting provides the fulfillment of never being fulfilled. You're never as good as you'd like to be. So there's always something to hope for.

Christmas is a season for kindling the fire for hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart.