“...a man of great common sense and good taste, meaning thereby a man without originality or moral courage.”

“Thus, I blush to add, you can not be a philosopher and a good man, though you may be a philosopher and a great one.”

“I'm one of the undeserving poor: that's what I am. Think of what that means to a man. It means that he's up agen middle class morality all the time. If there's anything going, and I put in for a bit of it, it's always the same story: "You're undeserving; so you can't have it." Buy my needs is as great as the most deserving widow's that ever got money out of six different charities in one week for the death of the same husband. I don't need less than a deserving man: I need more. I don't eat less hearty than him; and I drink a lot more. I want a bit of amusement, cause I'm a thinking man. I want cheerfulness and a song and a band when I feel low. Well, they charge me just the same for everything as they charge the deserving. What is middle class morality? Just an excuse for never giving me anything.”

“No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says: He is always convinced that it says what he means.”

“What man really wishes to do he will find a means of doing.”

“You know well I couldn't bear to live with a low common man after you two; and it's wicked and cruel of you to insult me by pretending I could.”

“Martyrdom, sir, is what these people like: it is the only way in which a man can become famous without ability.”