"What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure."

"I would rather see the portrait of a dog that I know, than all the allegorical paintings they can show me in the world."

"You teach your daughters the diameters of the planets and wonder when you are done that they do not delight in your company."

"Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."

"Oats. A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people."

"In order that all men may be taught to speak truth, it is necessary that all likewise should learn to hear it."

"He with whom neither slander that gradually soaks into the mind, nor statements that startle like a wound in the flesh, are successful may be called intelligent indeed."

"It is a great thing to start life with a small number of really good books which are your very own."

"If there is, in fact, a Heaven and a Hell, all we know for sure is that Hell will be a viciously overcrowded version of Phoenix..."

"It is usually best to be generous with praise, but cautious with criticism."

"It is well to remember that the entire universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others."

"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us."