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"Love, however, is very materially assisted by a warm and active imagination, which has a long memory and will thrive for a considerable time on very slight and sparing food."

"Is selfishness a necessary ingredient in the composition of that passion called love, or does it deserve all the fine things which poets, in the exercise of their undoubted vocation, have said of it?"

"Pride is one of the seven deadly sins; but it cannot be the pride of a mother in her children, for that is a compound of two cardinal virtues- faith and hope."

"There are some men, who living with the one object of enriching themselves, no matter by what means, and being perfectly conscious of the baseness and rascality of the means which they will use every day towards this end, affect nevertheless- even to themselves- a high tone of moral rectitude, and shake their heads and sigh over the depravity of the world."

"Some of the craftiest scoundrels that ever walked this earth, or rather- for walking implies, at least, an erect position and the bearing of a man- that ever crawled and crept through life by its dirtiest and narrowest ways, will gravely jot down in diaries the events of every day, and keep a regular debtor and creditor account with Heaven, which shall always show a floating balance in their own favor."

"He knew himself well, and choosing to imagine that all mankind were cast from the same mould, hated them; for, though no man hates himself, the coldest amoung us having too much self-love for that, yet most men unconsciously judge the world from themselves, and it will be very generally found that those who sneer habitually at human nature, and affect to despise it, are among its worst and least pleasant samples."