No more we meet in yonder bowers Absence has made me prone to roving; But older, firmer hearts than ours, Have found monotony in loving.

Age and Aging

It was one of the deadliest and heaviest feelings of my life to feel that I was no longer a boy. From that moment I began to grow old in my own esteem --and in my esteem age is not estimable.

Of all the barbarous middle ages, that which is most barbarous is the middle age of man! it is -- I really scarce know what; but when we hover between fool and sage, and don't know justly what we would be at -- a period something like a printed page, black letter upon foolscap, while our hair grows grizzled, and we are not what we were.

Change

The lapse of ages changes all things -- time, language, the earth, the bounds of the sea, the stars of the sky, and every thing "about, around, and underneath" man, except man himself.

Contentment

There's naught, no doubt, so much the spirit calms as rum and true religion.

Cries and Crying

Oh! too convincing -- dangerously dear -- In woman's eye the unanswerable tear!

Curiosity

That low vice, curiosity!

Debt

It is very iniquitous to make me pay my debts -- you have no idea of the pain it gives one.

Excuses

Your letter of excuses has arrived. I receive the letter but do not admit the excuses except in courtesy, as when a man treads on your toes and begs your pardon -- the pardon is granted, but the joint aches, especially if there is a corn upon it.

Fame

My great comfort is, that the temporary celebrity I have wrung from the world has been in the very teeth of all opinions and prejudices. I have flattered no ruling powers; I have never concealed a single thought that tempted me.

Fate

Tempted fate will leave the loftiest star.

Freedom

Yet, Freedom! yet thy banner, torn, but flying, streams like the thunderstorm against the wind.

Friends and Friendship

Friendship is Love without his wings!

Giving

I do detest everything which is not perfectly mutual.

Happiness

To have joy one must share it. Happiness was born a twin.

History and Historians

History is the devil's scripture.

Humankind

Man is born passionate of body, but with an innate though secret tendency to the love of Good in his main-spring of Mind. But God help us all! It is at present a sad jar of atoms.

Inheritance

For pleasures past I do not grieve, nor perils gathering near; My greatest grief is that I leave nothing that claims a tear.

Jealousy

Who surpasses or subdues mankind, must look down on the hate of those below.

Letters

Letter writing is the only device for combining solitude with good company.

Life and Living

When one subtracts from life infancy (which is vegetation), sleep, eating and swilling, buttoning and unbuttoning -- how much remains of downright existence? The summer of a dormouse.

Love

Man's love is of man's life a part; it is a woman's whole existence. In her first passion, a woman loves her lover, in all the others all she loves is love.

Marriage

I have great hopes that we shall love each other all our lives as much as if we had never married at all.

Memory

It is singular how soon we lose the impression of what ceases to be constantly before us. A year impairs, a luster obliterates. There is little distinct left without an effort of memory, then indeed the lights are rekindled for a moment --but who can be sure that the Imagination is not the torch-bearer?

Men and Women

But as to women, who can penetrate the real sufferings of their she condition? Man's very sympathy with their estate has much of selfishness and more suspicion. Their love, their virtue, beauty, education, but form good housekeepers, to breed a nation.

Money

I have imbibed such a love for money that I keep some sequins in a drawer to count, and cry over them once a week.

Motives

We are all selfish and I no more trust myself than others with a good motive.

Nostalgia

The "good old times" -- all times when old are good.

Parties

Like other parties of the kind, it was first silent, then talky, then argumentative, then disputatious, then unintelligible, then altogether, then inarticulate, and then drunk. When we had reached the last step of this glorious ladder, it was difficult to get down again without stumbling.

Payment

Alas! how deeply painful is all payment!

Poetry and Poets

As to "Don Juan," confess that it is the sublime of that there sort of writing; it may be bawdy, but is it not good English? It may be profligate, but is it not life, is it not the thing? Could any man have written it who has not lived in the world? and tooled in a post-chaise? in a hackney coach? in a Gondola? against a wall? in a court carriage? in a vis a vis? on a table? and under it?

Relationships

My attachment has neither the blindness of the beginning, nor the microscopic accuracy of the close of such liaisons.

Skepticism

If I am fool, it is, at least, a doubting one; and I envy no one the certainty of his self-approved wisdom.

Sorrow

Sorrow is knowledge, those that know the most must mourn the deepest, the tree of knowledge is not the tree of life.

Time and Time Management

Oh Time! the beautifier of the dead, adorer of the ruin, comforter and only healer when the heart hath bled... Time, the avenger!

Tyranny

If we must have a tyrant, let him at least be a gentleman who has been bred to the business, and let us fall by the axe and not by the butcher's cleaver.

Words

But words are things, and a small drop of ink, falling like dew, upon a thought, produces that which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.

Writers and Writing

To withdraw myself from myself has ever been my sole, my entire, my sincere motive in scribbling at all.