“Not many sounds in life, and I include all urban and all rural sounds, exceed in interest a knock at the door.”

“There is absolutely no such thing as reading but by a candle. We have tried the affectation of a book at noon-day in gardens, and in sultry arbours, but it was labor thrown away. Those gay motes in the beam come about you, hovering and teasing, like so many coquets, that will have you all to their self, and are jealous of your abstractions. By the midnight taper, the writers digests his meditations. By the same light we must approach to their perusal, if we would catch the flame, the odour.”

“Dream not...of having tasted all the grandeur & wildness of Fancy, till you have gone mad.”

“My theory is to enjoy life, but the practice is against it.”

“I love to lose myself in other men's minds. When I am not walking, I am reading.”

“Don't introduce me to that man! I want to go on hating him, and I can't hate a man whom I know.”

“I always arrive late at the office, but I make up for it by leaving early.”