Neatness of phrase is so closely akin to wit that it is often accepted as its substitute..

the most comfortable characteristic of the period [1775-1825], and the one which incites our deepest envy, is the universal willingness to accept a g….

The tourist may complain of other tourists, but he would be lost without them..

The impulse to travel is one of the hopeful symptoms of life..

There is an optimism which nobly anticipates the eventual triumph of great moral laws, and there is an optimism which cheerfully tolerates unworthine….

The least practical of us have some petty thrift dear to our hearts, some one direction in which we love to scrimp..

An appreciation of words is so rare that everybody naturally thinks he possesses it, and this universal sentiment results in the misuse of a material….

It is impossible to withhold education from the receptive mind, as it is impossible to force it upon the unreasoning..

There is always a secret irritation about a laugh in which we cannot join.

We cannot learn to love other tourists,-the laws of nature forbid it,-but, meditating soberly on the impossibility of their loving us, we may reach s….

It is because of our unassailable enthusiasm, our profound reverence for education, that we habitually demand of it the impossible. The teacher is ex….

The gospel of cheerfulness, I had almost said the gospel of amusement, is preached by people who lack experience to people who lack vitality. There i….

The human race may be divided into people who love cats and people who hate them; the neutrals being few in numbers, and, for intellectual and moral ….

For my part, the good novel of character is the novel I can always pick up; but the good novel of incident is the novel I can never lay down..

Wit is as infinite as love, and a deal more lasting in its qualities..

Like simplicity and candor, and other much-commented qualities, enthusiasm is charming until we meet it face to face, and cannot escape from its char….

Science may carry us to Mars, but it will leave the earth peopled as ever by the inept..

The earliest voice listened to by the nations in their infancy was the voice of the storyteller..

A vast deal of ingenuity is wasted every year in evoking the undesirable, in the careful construction of objects which burden life. Frankenstein was ….

Philadelphians are every whit as mediocre as their neighbors, but they seldom encourage each other in mediocrity by giving it a more agreeable name..

The worst in life, we are told, is compatible with the best in art. So too the worst in life is compatible with the best in humour..