Quotes

"His own enjoyment, or his own ease, was, in every particular, his ruling principle." ~ Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen We live in a world of transgressions and selfishness, and no pictures that represent us otherwise can be true, though, happily, for human nature, gleamings of that pure spirit in whose likeness man has been fashioned are to be seen, relieving its deformities, and mitigating if not excusing its crimes. ~ The Deerslayer by James Fenimore Cooper On the human imagination events produce the effects of time. Thus, he who has travelled far and seen much is apt to fancy that he has lived long; and the history that most abounds in important incidents soonest assumes the aspect of antiquity. ~ The Deerslayer by James Fenimore Cooper Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits. ~ The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain When angry, count four; when very angry, swear. ~ The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example. ~ The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain Adam was but human--this explains it all. He did not want the apple for the apple's sake, he wanted it only because it was forbidden. The mistake was in not forbidding the serpent; then he would have eaten the serpent. ~ The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain Now he found out a new thing--namely, that to promise not to do a thing is the surest way in the world to make a body want to go and do that very thing. ~ The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain Often, the less there is to justify a traditional custom, the harder it is to get rid of it. ~ The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain He had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it--namely, that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain. ~ The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain