for what remains of their morality.

*****

I hate cynicism a great deal worse than I do the devil; unless, perhaps,
the two were the same thing? And yet 'tis a good tonic; the cold tub and
bath-towel of the sentiments; and positively necessary to life in cases
of advanced sensibility.

*****

Most men, finding themselves the authors of their own disgrace, rail the
louder against God or destiny. Most men, when they repent, oblige their
friends to share the bitterness of that repentance.

*****

Delay, they say, begetteth peril; but it is rather this itch of doing
that undoes men.

*****

Every man has a sane spot somewhere.

*****

That is never a bad wind that blows where we want to go.

*****

It is a great thing if you can persuade people that they are somehow or
other partakers in a mystery. It makes them feel bigger.

*****

But it is an evil age for the gypsily inclined among men. He who can sit
squarest on a three-legged stool, he it is who has the wealth and glory.

*****

For truth that is suppressed by friends is the readiest weapon of the
enemy.

*****

But O, what a cruel thing is a farce to those engaged in it!

*****

It is not always the most faithful believer who makes the cunningest
apostle.

*****

Vanity dies hard; in some obstinate cases it outlives the man.

*****

A man may live in dreams, and yet be unprepared for their realisation.

*****

'Be soople, Davie, in things immaterial.'

*****

No class of man is altogether bad; but each has its own faults and
virtues.

*****

But it is odd enough, the very women who profess most contempt for
mankind as a sex seem to find even its ugliest particulars rather lively
and high-minded in their own sons.

*****

To cling to what is left of any damaged quality is virtue in the man.

*****

But we have no bravery nowadays, and, even in books, must all pretend to
be as dull and foolish as our neighbours.

*****

It always warms a man to see a woman brave.

*****

Condescension is an excellent thing, but it is strange how one-sided the
pleasure of it is!

*****

Some strand of our own misdoing is involved in every quarrel.

*****

There was never an ill thing made better by meddling.

*****

Let any man speak long enough, he will get believers.

*****

Every one lives by selling something, whatever be his right to it.

*****

A man dissatisfied with endeavour is a man tempted to sadness.