Of all needs a book has, the chief need is to be readable. - Anthony Trollope

Men who can succeed in deceiving no one else will succeed at last in deceiving themselves.

A man who desires to soften another man's heart, should always abuse himself. In softening a woman's heart, he should abuse her.

In former times great objects were attained by great work. When evils were to be reformed, reformers set about their heavy task with grave decorum and laborious argument. An age was occupied in proving a grievance, and philosophical researches were printed in folio pages, which it took a life to write, and an eternity to read. We get on now with a lighter step, and quicker: ridicule is found to be more convincing than argument, imaginary agonies touch more than true sorrows,