I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.
I don’t know why it should be, I am sure; but the sight of another man asleep in bed when I am up, maddens me.
We must not think of the things we could do with, but only of the things that we can’t do without.
I often arrive at quite sensible ideas and judgements, on the spur of the moment. It is when I stop to think that I become foolish.
But who wants to be foretold the weather? It is bad enough when it comes, without our having the misery of knowing about it beforehand.
What the eye does not see, the stomach does not get upset over
If he were a man of strong mind, it only gave him fits; but a person of mere average intellect it usually sent mad.
When Montmorency meets a cat, the whole street knows about it; and there is enough bad language wasted in ten seconds to last an ordinarily respectable man all his life, with care.
There is no more thrilling sensation I know of than sailing. It comes as near to flying as man has got to yet – except in dreams.
Appearance, not reality, is what the clever dog grasps at in these clever days. We spurn the dull-brown solid earth; we build our lives and homes in the fair-seeming rainbow-land of shadow and chimera.
In my youth, the question chiefly important to me was—What sort of man shall I decide to be? At nineteen one asks oneself this question; at thirty-nine we say, “I wish Fate hadn’t made me this sort of man.
The music of life would be mute if the chords of memory were snapped asunder.
As our means increase, so do our desires;and we ever stand midway between the two.
He told us that it had been a fine day to-day, and we told him that it had been a fine day yesterday, and then we all told each other that we thought it would be a fine day to-morrow; and George said the crops seemed to be coming up nicely.
Being poor is a mere trifle. It is being known to be poor that is the sting.
I should never make anything of a fisherman. I had not got sufficient imagination
I don’t understand German myself. I learned it at school, but forgot every word of it two years after I had left, and have felt much better ever since.
I had walked into that reading-room a happy, healthy man. I crawled out a decrepit wreck.
I plodded conscientiously through the twenty-six letters, and the only malady I could conclude I had not got was housemaid’s knee.
There must be something ghostly in the air of Christmas — something about the close, muggy atmosphere that draws up the ghosts, like the dampness of the summer rains brings out the frogs and snails.
They [dogs] never talk about themselves but listen to you while you talk about yourself, and keep up an appearance of being interested in the conversation.
It is so pleasant to come across people more stupid than ourselves. We love them at once for being so.
If he didn`t want his opinion,why did he ask for it?
If you are foolish enough to be contented, don’t show it, but grumble with the rest; and if you can do with a little, ask for a great deal. Because if you don’t you won’t get any.
It is always the best policy to speak the truth, unless, of course, you are an exceptionally good liar.
It is not that I object to the work, mind you; I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours. I love to keep it by me: the idea of getting rid of it nearly breaks my heart.
Fox-terriers are born with about four times as much original sin in them as other dogs.
It is impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly unless one has plenty of work to do.
Idleness like kisses to be sweet must be stolen.
It is easy enough to say that poverty is no crime. No if it were men wouldn’t be ashamed of it. It’s a blunder though and is punished as such.
I want a house that has got over all its troubles I don’t want to spend the rest of my life bringing up a young and inexperienced house.
I want a house that has gotten over all its troubles I don’t want to spend the rest of my life bringing up a young and inexperienced house.
It is impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly unless one has plenty of work to do.
I like work it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours. I love to keep it by me: the idea of getting rid of it nearly breaks my heart.
It is in our faults and failings, not in our virtues, that we touch one another and find sympathy. We differ widely enough in our nobler qualities. It is in our follies that we are at one.
People who have tried it, tell me that a clear conscience makes you very happy and contented; but a full stomach does the business quite as well, and is cheaper, and more easily obtained.
Love is like the measles we all have to go through it.
It is in our faults and failings, not in our virtues, that we touch each other, and find sympathy. It is in our follies that we are one.
What I am looking for is a blessing not in disguise.
I can see the humorous side of things and enjoy the fun when it comes; but look where I will, there seems to me always more sadness than joy in life.