When there is an old maid in a house, watch-dogs are unnecessary; not the slightest event can occur that she does not see and comment upon and pursue to its utmost consequences.
We must all agree that legality would be a fine thing for social scoundrelism IF THERE WERE NO GOD.
They who listen to only one bell hear only one sound.
The sweetest of all consolations to suffering souls, to martyrs, to artists, in the worst of that divine agony which hatred and envy force upon them, is to meet with praise where they have hitherto found censure and injustice.
Silliness has two ways of comporting itself; it talks, or is silent. Silent silliness can be borne.
No man would have torn himself from the comfort of a morning nap to listen to a minstrel in a jacket; none but a maid awakes to songs of love.
Little minds need to practise despotism to relieve their nerves, just as great souls thirst for equality in friendship to exercise their hearts.
In the provinces there is always a valve or a faucet through which gossip leaks from one social set to another.