“I will break obstacles to happiness, to goodness - yes, goodness. I wish to be a better man than I have been, than I am”
“I am not a very good man, Effie, but I think that I am a better one than you have given me credit for being.”
“I am better than good.”
“Wish me everything that you can wish for the woman you dearly love, and I have as good as got it, John. I have better than got it, John.”
“The Three Kinds of Pride are: (1) thinking I am better than the other(s); (2) thinking I am worse than the other(s); and (3) thinking I am just as good as the other(s).”
“Nature wishes that woman should attract man, yet she often cunningly moulds into her face a little sarcasm, which seems to say, 'Yes, I am willing to attract, but to attract a little better kind of a man than any I yet behold”