Books that you may carry to the fire, and hold readily in your hand, are the most useful after all.

Cucumber should be well sliced, dressed with pepper and vinegar, and then thrown out.

The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.

Curiosity is one of the most permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect.

Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not.

When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.

Classical quotation is the parole of literary men all over the world.

A man who uses a great many words to express his meaning is like a bad marksman who, instead of aiming a single stone at an object, takes up a handful and throws at it in hopes he may hit.

There are minds so impatient of inferiority that their gratitude is a species of revenge, and they return benefits, not because recompense is a pleasure, but because obligation is a pain.

When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.

He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will waste his life in fruitless efforts.

The office of the public teacher is an unenviable and thankless one.

A chop is a piece of leather skillfully attached to a bone and administered to the patients at restaurants.

I believe I went through a divorce. My relationship with Ellen is no less significant as a marriage than my relationship to Coley.

You can't kill it with goodbye; It always finds a place to hide inside your heart for your whole life. Love is never-ending.

Poetry is the art of overhearing ourselves say things from which it is impossible to retreat.

Is it a bad sign when someone asks you about the person your dating and a tear falls from your eye as you leap into oncoming traffic?

I have long been convinced that the Christian Eucharist is but a continuation of the Eleusinian mysteries. St Paul, in using the word teleiois, almost confirms this.

I have to fix this,” I told him, as clearly and calmly as I could. “If you want to help me, then help me. Don’t shield me, don’t protect me, don’t bury me alive. Help me .

The feminine aspect has been crushed for millennia in most cultures. I believe the future lies in a balance of the male/female duality

Now if there is one thing that we do worse than any other nation, it is try and manage somebody else's affairs.