If thou hast never been a fool, be sure thou wilt never be a wise man.

Out of the fictitious book I get the expression of the life, of the times, of the manners, of the merriment, of the dress, the pleasure, the laughter, the ridicules of society. The old times live again. Can the heaviest historian do more for me?

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

If fathers are sometimes sulky at the appearance of the destined son-in-law, is it not a fact that mothers become sentimental and, as it were, love their own loves over again.

Diffidence is a sort of false modesty.

You, who are ashamed of your poverty, and blush for your calling, are a snob; as are you who boast of your wealth.

What money is better bestowed than that of a schoolboy's tip? How the kindness is recalled by the recipient in after days! It blesses him that gives and him that takes.