“A boy's story is the best that is ever told.”

“The New Testament is the very best book that ever was or ever will be known in the world.”

“Boy, be for ever grateful to all friends, but especially unto them which brought you up by hand”

“...and memory, however sad, is the best and purest link between this world and a better. But come! I'll tell you a story of another kind.”

“Oh, but reasoning is so much worse than scolding!... I didn't marry to be reasoned with. If you meant to reason with such a poor little thing as I am, you ought to have told me so, you cruel boy!”

“I never see any difference in boys. I only know two sorts of boys. Mealy boys and beef-faced boys.”

“Poetry's unnat'ral; no man ever talked in poetry 'cept a beadle on boxin' day, or Warren's blackin' or Rowland's oil, or some o' them low fellows; never you let yourself down to talk poetry, my boy.”