Being a man of very few ideas, he cherished those he had with an exaggerated care.

It's the people who try to be clever who never are; the people who are clever never think of trying to be.

She belongs to a race of delightful women, who never do any harm, whom everybody calls good, and who are very severe on those who do not pretend to be good.

In all secrets there is a kind of guilt, however beautiful or joyful they may be, or for what good end they may be set to serve. Secrecy means evasion, and evasion means a problem to the moral mind.

Imagination is at the root of much that passes for love.

Man is born in a day, and he dies in a day, and the thing is easily over; but to have a sick heart for three-fourths of one's lifetime is simply to have death renewed every morning; and life at that price is not worth living.

War is cruelty, and none can make it gentle.

There is no refuge from memory and remorse in this world. The spirits of our foolish deeds haunt us, with or without repentance.

Every man should have laws of his own, I should think; commandments of his own, for every man has a different set of circumstances wherein to work--or worry.