“If it is a distinction to have written a good book, it is also a disgrace to have written a bad one.”

It is the passion that is in a kiss that gives to it its sweetness; it is the affection in a kiss that sanctifies it.

A book should be luminous not voluminous.

We give our best affections to the beautiful, only our second best to the useful.

Formerly when great fortunes were only made in war, war was a business; but now, when great fortunes are only made by business, business is war.

False friends are like our shadow, keeping close to us while we walk in the sunshine, but leaving us the instant we cross into the shade.

There are seaons when our passions have slept so long that we know not whether they still exist in us. So does flax forget that it is combustible when the fire is away from it.

Life is indeed either a rich possession or a poor, according as it is made subservient to noble aims or ignoble pleasures.

Discretion is the salt, and fancy the sugar of life; the one preserves, the other sweetens it.

Great warriors, like great earthquakes, are principally remembered for the mischief they have done.

Give me the character and I will forecast the event.

To vindicate the sanctity of human life by taking it is an outrage upon reason. The spectacle of a human being dangling at the end of a gallows-rope is a degradation of humanity.

Dignity of position adds to dignity of character, as well as to dignity of carriage. Give us a proud position, and we are impelled to act up to it.

Genius makes its observations in short-hand; talent writes them out at length.

Successful love takes a load off our hearts, and puts it upon our shoulders.

We make way for the man who boldly pushes past us.

Without death in the world, existence in it would soon become, through over-population, the most frightful of curses.

If you look for what’s bad, you will find the bad.

I do not forget any good deed done to me & I do not carry a grudge for a bad one.

Did you have a bad day or just bad parts of a good day?

A bad experience can bring out the good in us.

Time is good or bad. Keep patience, everyone’s time is spent.

You might be afraid of being alone now. But soon you will be afraid of having the wrong people as company.

Right now I’m the greatest. I don’t say this through vanity. It’s just that the rest are so bad.

Celebrate your strength. You’ve come so far in your practice and have survived 100% of your bad days⁠.