“Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit.”

“To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.”

“From old habit, unconsciously he thanked God that he no longer believed in Him.”

“Sometimes I think that when we say our honour prevents us from doing this or that we deceive ourselves, and our real motive is vanity.”

“Insensibly he formed the most delightful habit in the world, the habit of reading: he did not know that thus he was providing himself with a refuge from all the distress of life; he did not know either that he was creating for himself an unreal world which would make the real world of every day a source of bitter disappointment.”

“Marriage is a very good thing, but I think it’s a mistake to make a habit of it.”

“...like many another self-educated man, he attached an exaggerated importance to the knowledge he had so painfully acquired and could not resist the temptation to parade it,...”