“But I don't mean to flatter you: if you are cast in a different mould to the majority, it is no merit of yours: Nature did it.”

“A general State education is a mere contrivance for moulding people to be exactly like one another; and as the mould in which it casts them is that which pleases the dominant power in the government, whether this be a monarch, an aristocracy, or a majority of the existing generation; in proportion as it is efficient and successful, it establishes a despotism over the mind, leading by a natural tendency to one over the body.”

“Later on in life, you expect a bit of rest, don't you? You think you deserve it. I did, anyway. But then you begin to understand that the reward of merit is not life's business.”

“Dead-end roads don't mean you've come to your end, just means you need to take a different detour.”

“Nature gives you the face you have at twenty; it is up to you to merit the face you have at fifty.”

“You would say you don't see it: at least I flatter myself I read as much in your eye (beware, by-the-by, what you express with that organ, I am quick at interpreting its language).”