The two most engaging powers of an author are to make new things familiar, familiar things new.

What is it to be a gentleman? Is it to be honest, to be gentle, to be generous, to be brave, to be wise, and, possessing all these qualities, to exercise them in the most graceful outward manner? Ought a gentleman to be a loyal son, a true husband, an honest father? Ought his life to be decent, his bills to be paid, his taste to be high and elegant, his aims in life lofty and noble?

Those who forgets their friends to follow those of a higher status are truly snobs.

Which of us is happy in this world? Which of us has his desire? or, having it, is satisfied?

It seems to me one cannot sit down in that place [the Round Reading room of the British Museum] without a heart full of grateful reverence. I own to have said my grace at the table, and to have thanked Heaven for my English birthright, freely to partake of these beautiful books, and speak the truth I find there.

When a man is in love with one woman in a family, it is astonishing how fond he becomes of every person connected with it.

Society having ordained certain customs, men are bound to obey the law of society, and conform to its harmless orders.