"The easiest thing to do, whenever you fail, is to put yourself down by blaming your lack of ability ..." — Washington Irving

The natural principle of war is to do the most harm to our enemy with the least harm to ourselves; and this of course is to be effected by stratagem.

The idol of today pushes the hero of yesterday out of our recollection; and will, in turn, be supplanted by his successor of tomorrow.

It is not poverty so much as pretense that harasses a ruined man - the struggle between a proud mind and an empty purse - the keeping up of a hollow show that must soon come to an end.

A tart temper never mellows with age, and a sharp tongue is the only edged tool that grows keener with constant use.