"Life is just a quick succession of busy nothings."

"No one can be really esteemed accomplished who does not greatly surpass what is usually met with."

"We have all a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other person can be."

"I am excessively fond of music, but without the smallest skill or right of judging of anybody's performance."

"I pay very little regard...to what any young person says on the subject of marriage. If they profess a disinclination for it, I only set it down that they have not yet seen the right person."

"Silly things do cease to be silly if they are done by sensible people in an impudent way."

"The forceps of our minds are clumsy forceps, and crush the truth a little in taking hold of it."

"Knowledge is expensive."

"Toward no crime have men shown themselves so cold-bloodedly cruel as in punishing differences of belief."

"Actions have consequences...first rule of life. And the second rule is this - you are the only one responsible for your own actions."

"What you are shouts so loud in my ears I cannot hear what you say."

"A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend. A successful woman is one who can find such a man."