The satirist who writes nothing but satire should write but little - or it will seem that his satire springs rather from his own caustic nature than from the sins of the world in which he lives.

Never think that you're not good enough. A man should never think that. People will take you very much at your own reckoning.

It is better to do one's own duty, however defective it may be, than to follow the duty of another, however well one may perform it. He who does his duty as his own nature reveals it, never sins.

He who asks of life nothing but the improvement of his own nature... is less liable than anyone else to miss and waste life.

I do not know whether there be, as a rule, more vocal expression of the sentiment of love between a man and a woman, than there is between two thrushes. They whistle and call to each other, guided by instinct rather than by reason.

No man thinks there is much ado about nothing when the ado is about himself.