“This habit of reading, I make bold to tell you, is your pass to the greatest, the purest, and the most perfect pleasure that God has prepared for His creatures.”

Words spoken cannot be recalled, and many a man and many a woman who has spoken a word at once regretted, are far too proud to express that regret.

Power is so pleasant that men quickly learn to be greedy in the enjoyment of it, and to flatter themselves that patriotism requires them to be imperious.

Of course, Lady Arabella could not suckle the young heir herself. Ladies Arabella never can.

There are words which a man cannot resist from a woman, even though he knows them to be false.

I cannot hold with those who wish to put down the insignificant chatter of the world.

There are worse things than a lie… I have found… that it may be well to choose one sin in order that another may be shunned.

Fortune favors the brave; and the world certainly gives the most credit to those who are able to give an unlimited credit to themselves.

Don’t let love interfere with your appetite. It never does with mine.

I have no ambition to surprise my reader. Castles with unknown passages are not compatible with my homely muse.

The habit of writing clearly soon comes to the writer who is a severe critic to himself.

It is a comfortable feeling to know that you stand on your own ground. Land is about the only thing that can’t fly away.

But mad people never die. That’s a well-known fact. They’ve nothing to trouble them, and they live for ever.

It has now become the doctrine of a large clan of politicians that political honesty is unnecessary, slow, subversive of a man’s interests, and incompatible with quick onward movement.

There is no royal road to learning; no short cut to the acquirement of any art.

I ain’t a bit ashamed of anything.

Equality would be a heaven, if we could attain it.