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We cannot bring ourselves to believe it possible that a foreigner should in any respect be wiser than ourselves. If any such point out to us our follies, we at once claim those follies as the special evidence of our wisdom.
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No other American city is so intensely American as New York.
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It is hard to rescue a man from the slough of luxury and idleness combined. If anything can do it, it is a cradle filled annually.
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When the little dog snarls, the big dog does not connect the snarl with himself, simply fancying that the little dog must be uncomfortable.
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A husband is very much like a house or a horse.
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When any practice has become the fixed rule of the society in which we live, it is always wise to adhere to that rule, unless it call upon us to do something that is actually wrong. One should not offend the prejudices of the world, even if one is quite sure that they are prejudices.
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There is always a piano in an hotel drawing-room, on which, of course, some one of the forlorn ladies is generally employed. I do not suppose that these pianos are, in fact, as a rule, louder and harsher, more violent and less musical, than other instruments of the kind. They seem to be so, but that, I take it, arises from the exceptional mental depression of those who have to listen to them.
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I doubt whether I ever read any description of scenery which gave me an idea of the place described.
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The greatest mistake any man ever made is to suppose that the good things of the world are not worth the winning.
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Mr. Browborough, whose life had not been passed in any strict obedience to the Ten Commandments, and whose religious observances had not hitherto interfered with either the pleasures or the duties of his life, repeated at every meeting which he attended, and almost to every elector whom he canvassed, the great Shibboleth which he had now adopted "The prosperity of England depends on the Church of her people.
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But the school in which good training is most practiced will, as a rule, turn out the best scholars.
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Beware of creating tedium!
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I do not think myself to be a worm, and a grub, grass of the field fit only to be burned, a clod, a morsel of putrid atoms that should be thrown to the dungheap, ready for the nethermost pit. Nor if I did should I therefore expect to sit with Angels and Archangels.
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We can generally read a man's purpose towards us in his manner, if his purposes are of much moment to us.
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It has now become the doctrine of a large clan of politicians that political honesty is unnecessary, slow, subversive of a man's interests, and incompatible with quick onward movement.
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I run great risk of failing. It may be that I shall encounter ruin where I look for reputation and a career of honor. The chances are perhaps more in favour of ruin than of success. But, whatever may be the chances, I shall go on as long as any means of carrying on the fight are at my disposal.
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The double pleasure of pulling down an opponent, and of raising oneself, is the charm of a politician's life.
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A man who is supposed to have caused a disturbance between two married people, in a certain rank of life, does generally receive a certain meed of admiration.
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There are some achievements which are never done in the presence of those who hear of them. Catching salmon is one, and working all night is another.
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The happiest man is he, who being above the troubles which money brings, has his hands the fullest of work.
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I don't like anybody or anything," said Lucinda. Yes, you do;--you like horses to ride, and dresses to wear.
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When it comes to money nobody should give up anything.
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To oblige a friend by inflicting an injury on his enemy is often more easy than to confer a benefit on the friend himself.
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Never mingle love and business.