The truth is that the propensity of man to imitate what is before him is one of the strongest parts of his nature.

Women — one half the human race at least — care fifty times more for a marriage than a ministry.

The worst families are those in which the members never really speak their minds to one another; they maintain an atmosphere of unreality, and everyone always lives in an atmosphere of suppressed ill-feeling.

Women—one half the human race at least—care fifty times more for a marriage than a ministry.

Adventure is the life of commerce, but caution, I had almost said timidity, is the life of banking.

The habit of common and continuous speech is a symptom of mental deficiency.

The great qualities, the imperious will, the rapid energy, the eager nature fit for a great crisis are not required—are impediments—in common times.

Every railway takes trade from the little town to the big town, because it enables the customer to buy in the big town.

The best reason why Monarchy is a strong government is, that it is an intelligible government. The mass of mankind understand it, and they hardly anywhere in the world understand any other.

A perfectly poetic appreciation of nature contains two elements, a knowledge of facts, and a sensibility to charms. Everybody who may have to speak to some naturalists will be well aware how widely the two may be separated. He will have seen that a man may study butterflies and forget that they are beautiful, or be perfect in the "Lunar theory" without knowing what most people mean by the moon.