“Anything for the quick life, as the man said when he took the situation at the lighthouse.”
“Cheerfulness and contentment are great beautifiers and are famous preservers of youthful looks.”
“Minds, like bodies, will fall into a pimpled, ill-conditioned state from mere excess of comfort.”
“I never see any difference in boys. I only know two sorts of boys. Mealy boys and beef-faced boys.”
“Mind like bodies, will often fall into a pimpled, ill-conditioned state from mere excess of comfort.”
“Here's the rule for bargains: ''Do other men, for they would do you.'' That's the true business precept.”
“It opens the lungs, washes the countenance, exercises the eyes, and softens down the temper; so cry away.”
“I feel an earnest and humble desire, and shall till I die, to increase the stock of harmless cheerfulness.”
“They are so filthy and bestial that no honest man would admit one into his house for a water-closet doormat.”
“A man in public life expects to be sneered at -- it is the fault of his elevated situation, and not of himself.”
“It was a good thing to have a couple of thousand people all rigid and frozen together, in the palm of one's hand.”
“It's my old girl that advises. She has the head. But I never own to it before her. Discipline must be maintained.”
“Credit is a system whereby a person who can not pay gets another person who can not pay to guarantee that he can pay.”
“Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.”
“We know, Mr. Weller -- we, who are men of the world -- that a good uniform must work its way with the women, sooner or later.”
“Oh the nerves, the nerves; the mysteries of this machine called man! Oh the little that unhinges it, poor creatures that we are!”
“A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.”
“Take example by your father, my boy, and be very careful of vidders all your life, specially if they've kept a public house, Sammy.”
“Home is a name, a word, it is a strong one; stronger than magician ever spoke, or spirit ever answered to, in the strongest conjuration.”
“Many merry Christmases, friendships, great accumulation of cheerful recollections, affection on earth, and Heaven at last for all of us.”
“Such is hope, heaven's own gift to struggling mortals, pervading, like some subtle essence from the skies, all things both good and bad.”
“Electric communication will never be a substitute for the face of someone who with their soul encourages another person to be brave and true.”
“A lady of what is commonly called an uncertain temper -- a phrase which being interpreted signifies a temper tolerably certain to make everybody more or less uncomfortable.”
“I never could have done what I have done without the habits of punctuality, order, and diligence, without the determination to concentrate myself on one subject at a time...”
“The whole difference between construction and creation is this; that a thing constructed can only be loved after it is constructed; but a thing created is loved before it exists.”
“Keep out of Chancery. It's being ground to bits in a slow mill; it's being roasted at a slow fire; it's being stung to death by single bees; it's being drowned by drops; it's going mad by grains.”
“Minerva House was ''a finishing establishment for young ladies,'' where some twenty girls of the ages from thirteen to nineteen inclusive, acquired a smattering of everything and a knowledge of nothing.”
“It is a pleasant thing to reflect upon, and furnishes a complete answer to those who contend for the gradual degeneration of the human species, that every baby born into the world is a finer one than the last.”
“Nature gives to every time and season some beauties of its own; and from morning to night, as from the cradle to the grave, it is but a succession of changes so gentle and easy that we can scarcely mark their progress.”
“I am quite serious when I say that I do not believe there are, on the whole earth besides, so many intensified bores as in these United States. No man can form an adequate idea of the real meaning of the word, without coming here.”