what secular avocation on earth was there for a young man (whose friends could not get him an ‘appointment’) which was at once gentlemanly, lucrative, and to be followed without special knowledge?

It is a narrow mind which cannot look at a subject from various points of view.

And certainly, the mistakes that we male and female mortals make when we have our own way might fairly raise some wonder that we are so fond of it.

But that intimacy of mutual embarrassment, in which each feels that the other is feeling something, having once existed, its effect is not to be done away with.

What loneliness is more lonely than distrust?

A woman dictates before marriage in order that she may have an appetite for submission afterwards.

Blameless people are always the most exasperating.

People glorify all sorts of bravery except the bravery they might show on behalf of their nearest neighbors.

I don't see how a man is to be good for much unless he has some one woman to love him dearly.

Men outlive their love, but they don’t outlive the consequences of their recklessness.

Upon my word, I think the truth is the hardest missile one can be pelted with.

Friends might share clothes and chocolate, but they must share books. Just like you share the same stars, share the same books and you'll never be apart.

Insight is the deep intuitive understanding of things, and it often breaks through the conventional wisdom.

Dust is the parent of a star!

Let’s quit trying so hard to be some version of a normal we’ve never really been.

Fame is the beauty parlor of the dead.

Be respected as being new, and probably a decent change or a help for the human race or whatever, instead of keep carrying the same old burdens around with you.

Slavery is not African history. Slavery interrupted African history.

Goals are only ever a guide; a winding, changing path. It's your heart that will really keep you on tack... and nourished along the way.

Tenterhooks are the upholstery of the anxious seat.

On average, 90 percent of the variability of returns and 100 percent of the absolute level of return is explained by asset allocation.