Every word has a story.

What right has a man to ask Jesus to forgive him, when his heart is still burning with hatred or festering with grudges against a fellow-creature? Confession, to be of any avail, must let go of its hold on the sin confessed.

Abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry and chicanery, of party, faction, and division of society.

I think the American people want a solemn ass as a President and I think I will go along with them.

[N]o novels or worldly books come up to the Sermons of McCheyne or the Commentaries of Scott.

They treat me like a fox, a cunning fellow (Schlaukopf) of the first rank. But the truth is that with a gentleman I am always a gentleman and a half, and when I have to do with a pirate, I try to be a pirate and a half.

Many books require no thought from those who read them, and for a very simple reason; they made no such demand upon those who wrote them.

When thirsty griefe in Wine we steepe, When Healths and draughts go free, Fishes that tipple in the Deepe, Know no such Libertie.

He did not know the way things were going: he was too Victorian to understand the Victorian epoch. He did not know enough ignorant people to have heard the news.