“Life is a series of surprises and would not be worth taking or keeping if it were not.”

“When a resolute young fellow steps up to the great bully, the world, and takes him boldly by the beard, he is often surprised to find it comes off in his hand, and that it was only tied on to scare away the timid adventurers.”

“Society is always taken by surprise at any new example of common sense.”

“When you were born you were crying and everyone else was smiling. Live your life so at the end, your're the one who is smiling and everyone else is crying.”

“To stand in true relations with men in a false age is worth a fit of insanity, is it not?”

“When I read a good book, I wish my life were three thousand years long.”

“No book has worth by itself, but by the relation to what you have from many other books, it weighs.”