words of wisdom Quotes

“My dear Watson,” he said, “you aren’t supposed to be as clever as this.”

Of course, I’ve had my troubles, but one can live down troubles.

“She’s been a blessing to us, and there never was a luckier mistake than what Mrs. Spencer made—if it was luck. I don’t believe it was any such thing. It was Providence, because the Almighty saw we needed her, I reckon.”

What can thy silence do for him, except it tempt him—yea, compel him, as it were—to add hypocrisy to sin?

“And he isn’t conceited, is he?” asked Amy. “Not in the least. That is why he is so charming and we all like him so much.”

Jo, dear, we all have our temptations, some far greater than yours, and it often takes us all our lives to conquer them.

“You have had a warning. Remember it, and try with heart and soul to master this quick temper, before it brings you greater sorrow and regret than you have known today.”

Don’t laugh at the spinsters, dear girls, for often very tender, tragic romances are hidden away in the hearts that beat so quietly under the sober gowns, and many silent sacrifices of youth, health, ambition, love itself, make the faded faces beautiful in God’s sight.

“Opinions held in common are a ready bond of union.”

“Oh, man!” murmured d’Avrigny, “the most selfish of all animals, the most personal of all creatures, who believes the earth turns, the sun shines, and death strikes for him alone,—an ant cursing God from the top of a blade of grass!”

“Brag is a good dog, but Holdfast is a better. Bear that in mind, will you?”

“You may get cheated, robbed, and murdered in London. But there are plenty of people anywhere, who’ll do that for you.”

You have a character that’s all of a piece, and you want the whole of life to be of a piece too—but that’s not how it is. You despise public official work because you want the reality to be invariably corresponding all the while with the aim—and that’s not how it is. You want a man’s work, too, always to have a defined aim, and love and family life always to be undivided—and that’s not how it is.

“To deliver one’s brother-men from bondage is an aim worth death and life.”