In civilized life, where the happiness, and indeed almost the existence, of man depends so much upon the opinion of his fellow men, he is constantly acting a studied part.
It’s a fair wind that blew men to ale.
He who would greatly deserve must greatly dare.
No man knows what the wife of his bosom is until he has gone with her through the fiery trials of this world.
Society is like a lawn, where every roughness is smoothed, every bramble eradicated, and where the eye is delighted by the smiling verdure of a velvet surface.
Believe me, the man who earns his bread by the sweat of his brow, eats oftener a sweeter morsel, however coarse, than he who procures it by the labor of his brains.
A few amber clouds floated in the sky without a breath of air to move them. The horizon was of a fine golden tint, changing gradually into a pure apple-green, and from that into the deep blue of the mid-heaven.
There is no character in the comedy of human life more difficult to play well than that of an old bachelor.
There is a certain relief in change, even though it be from bad to worse.
The slanders of the pen pierce to the heart; they rankle longest in the noblest spirits; they dwell ever present in the mind and render it morbidly sensitive to the most trifling collision.
To occupy an inch of dusty shelf-to have the title of their works read now and then in a future age by some drowsy churchman or casual straggler, and in another age to be lost, even to remembrance. Such is the amount of boasted immortality.
There is an emanation from the heart in genuine hospitality which cannot be described, but is immediately felt and puts the stranger at once at his ease.
The dance, like most dances after supper, was a merry one; some of the older folks joined in it, and the squire himself figured down several couple with a partner, with whom he affirmed he had danced at every Christmas for nearly half a century.
There are moments of mingled sorrow and tenderness, which hallow the caresses of affection.
Nature seems to delight in disappointing the assiduities of art, with which it would rear legitimate dulness to maturity; and to glory in the vigour and luxuriance of her chance productions.
He who would study nature in its wildness and variety, must plunge into the forest, must explore the glen, must stem the torrent, and dare the precipice.
Jealous people poison their own banquet and then eat it.
Christmas is here, Merry old Christmas, Gift-bearing Christmas, Day of grand memories, King of the year!
A mother is the truest friend we have when trials, heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity.
Marriage is the torment of one, the felicity of two, the strife and enmity of three.