A boy’s story is the best that is ever told.

A day wasted on others is not wasted on one’s self.

A lady of what is commonly called an uncertain temper — a phrase which being interpreted signifies a temper tolerably certain to make everybody more or less uncomfortable.

A loving heart is the truest wisdom.

A man in public life expects to be sneered at — it is the fault of his elevated situation, and not of himself.

A person who can’t pay gets another person who can’t pay to guarantee that he can pay. Like a person with two wooden legs getting another person with two wooden legs to guarantee that he has got two natural legs. It don’t make either of them able to do a walking-match.

A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.

Anything for the quick life, as the man said when he took the situation at the lighthouse.

Bring in the bottled lightning, a clean tumbler, and a corkscrew.

Change begets change. Nothing propagates so fast. If a man habituated to a narrow circle of cares and pleasures, out of which he seldom travels, step beyond it, though for never so brief a space, his departure from the monotonous scene on which he has been an actor of importance would seem to be the signal for instant confusion. … The mine which Time has slowly dug beneath familiar objects is sprung in an instant; and what was rock before, becomes but sand and dust.