“He that climbs a ladder must begin at the first round.”

He that climbs the tall tree has won right to the fruit, He that leaps the wide gulf should prevail in his suit.

November’s sky is chill and drear, November’s leaf is red and sear.

There never will exist anything permanently noble and excellent in the character which is a stranger to resolute self-denial.

War is the only game in which both sides lose.

Welcome as the flowers in May.

Tears are the softening showers which cause the seed of heaven to spring up in the human heart.

Cats are a very mysterious kind of folk. There is always more passing in their minds than we are aware of.

Treason seldom dwells with courage.

Come he slow or come he fast it is but death that comes at last.

We build statues out of snow, and weep to see them melt.

I was born a Scotsman and a bare one. Therefore I was born to fight my way in the world.

I will tear this folly from my heart, though every fibre bleed as I rend it away!

It is the privilege of tale-tellers to open their story in an inn, the free rendezvous of all travellers, and where the humour of each displays itself, without ceremony or restraint.

It is wonderful what strength of purpose and boldness and energy of will are roused by the assurance that we are doing our duty.

Many of our cares are but a morbid way of looking at our privileges

Cats are a mysterious kind of folk.

My mother, was perfectly horrified when I began shooting and tried to keep me in school, but I would run away and go quail shooting in the woods or trim my dresses with wreaths of wildflowers.

The third big war will begin when the big city is burning.

But what if I fail of my purpose here? It is but to keep the nerves at strain, to dry one’s eyes and laugh at a fall, and baffled, get up and begin again.

Humiliation is the beginning of sanctification.

Motherhood: All love begins and ends there.

In love with September’s sun the season that begins all witchy things and stirs the soul.

In the beginning, I wrote OK songs, but they didn’t have a unique perspective.

The human mind prefers to be spoon-fed with the thoughts of others, but deprived of such nourishment it will, reluctantly, begin to think for itself – and such thinking, remember, is original thinking and may have valuable results.