Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Some of 'em [virtues] like extinct volcanoes, with a strong memory or fire and brimstone.
Self-defense is the clearest of all laws; and for this reason - the lawyers didn't make it.
Wits, like drunken men with swords, are apt to draw their steel upon their best acquaintances.
After all there is something about a wedding-gown prettier than in any other gown in the world.
Modesty is a bright dish-cover, which makes us fancy there is something very nice underneath it.
Fortunes made in no time are like shirts made in no time; it's ten to one if they hang long together.
What women would do if they could not cry, nobody knows. What poor, defenceless creatures they would be!
I never hear the rattling of dice that it does not sound to me like the funeral bell of the whole family.
There is peace more destructive of the manhood of living man than war is destructive of his material body.
Jewels! It's my belief that when woman was made, jewels were invented only to make her the more mischievous.
A man is in no danger so long as he talks his love; but to write it is to impale himself on his own pothooks.
Wit, like money, bears an extra value when rung down immediately it is wanted. Men pay severely who require credit.
A conservative is a man who will not look at the new moon out of respect for that 'ancient institution' the old one.
He is one of those wise philanthropists who, in a time of famine, would vote for nothing but a supply of toothpicks.
That man is thought a dangerous knave, Or zealot plotting crime, Who for advancement of his kind Is wiser than his time.
Man owes two solemn debts--one to society, and one to-nature. It is only when he pays the second that he covers the first.
Nothing is so beneficial to a young author as the advice of a man whose judgment stands constitutionally at the freezing-point.
Virtue is a beautiful thing in woman when they don't go about with it like a child with a drum making all sorts of noise with it.
O this itch of the ear, that breaks out at the tongue! Were not curiosity so over-busy, detraction would soon be starved to death.
He was so benevolent, so merciful a man that, in his mistaken passion, he would have held an umbrella over a duck in a shower of rain.
Slugs crawl and crawl over our cabbages, like the world's slander over a good name. You may kill them, it is true; but there is the slime.
Fix yourself upon the wealthy. In a word, take this for a golden rule through life: Never, never have a friend that is poorer than yourself.
There are some people as obtuse in recognizing an argument as they are in appreciating wit. You couldn't drive it into their heads with a hammer.
If an earthquake were to engulf England tomorrow, the English would manage to meet and dine somewhere among the rubbish, just to celebrate the event.
Even the worse of jobs has their pleasures, if I were a grave digger or a hangmen, there are some people I could work for with a great deal of enjoyment.
Duty, though set about by thorns, may still be made a staff supporting even while it tortures. Cast it away, and, like the prophet's wand, it changes to a snake.
A man, so to speak, who is not able to bow to his own conscience every morning is hardly in a condition to respectfully salute the world at any other time of the day.
A blessed companion is a book! A book that, fitly chosen, is a life-long friend. A book — the unfailing Damon to his loving Pythias. A book that — at a touch — pours its heart into our own.
There are a good many pious people who are as careful of their religion as of their best service of china, only using it on holy occasions, for fear it should get chipped or flawed in working-day wear.
What a fine-looking thing is war! Yet, dress it as we may, dress and feather it, daub it with gold, huzza it, and sing swaggering songs about it,--what is it, nine times out of ten, but murder in uniform!
A piece of simple goodness--a letter gushing from the heart; a beautiful unstudied vindication of the worth and untiring sweetness of human nature--a record of the invulnerability of man, armed with high purpose, sanctified by truth.
A creature undefiled by the taint of the world, unvexed by its injustice, unwearied by its hollow pleasures; a being fresh from the source of light, with something of its universal lustre in it. If childhood be this, how holy the duty to see that in its onward growth it shall be no other!