My grandma (rest her soul) used to say, ”there were but two families in the world, have-much and have-little.”

He who loses wealth loses much; he who loses a friend loses more; but he that loses his courage loses all.

That which costs little is less valued.

If that should not be, cousin, I say: patience and shuffle the cards.

Truth indeed rather alleviates than hurts, and will always bear up against falsehood, as oil does above water.

All the physicians and authors in the world could not give a clear account of his madness. He is mad in patches, full of lucid intervals.

Thou art a cat, and rat, and a coward to boot.

True valor lies half way between cowardice and rashness.

Fear has many eyes and can see things underground.

From reading too much, and sleeping too little, his brain dried up on him and he lost his judgment.

Honesty is the best policy.

Hunger is the best sauce in the world.

There are only two families in the world, as a grandmother of mine used to say: the haves and the have-nots.

As much is lost by a card too many as a card too few

Hold you there, neither a strange hand nor my own, neither heavy nor light shall touch my bum.

The gratification of wealth is not found in mere possession or in lavish expenditure, but in its wise application.

That’s the nature of women not to love when we love them, and to love when we love them not.

All that glisters is not gold.

I find my familiarity with thee has bred contempt.

For a man to attain to an eminent degree in learning costs him time, watching, hunger, nakedness, dizziness in the head, weakness in the stomach, and other inconveniences.

By the street of By and By, one arrives at the house of Never

I would do what I pleased, and doing what I pleased, I should have my will, and having my will, I should be contented; and when one is contented, there is no more to be...

Patience and shuffle the cards.

Oh, sir, sir, there are more tricks done in the village than make a noise – saving her ladyship’s presence.

There’s no taking trout with dry breeches.

El ver mucho y leer mucho aviva los ingenios de los hombres.

‘ Tis the maddest trick a man can ever play in his whole life, to let his breath sneak out of his body without any more ado, and without so much as a rap o...

There is also this benefit in brag, that the speaker is unconsciously expressing his own ideal. Humor him by all means, draw it all out, and hold him to it.

Tis the only comfort of the miserable to have partners in their woes.

Don’t put too fine a point to your wit for fear it should get blunted.

Our greatest foes, and whom we must chiefly combat, are within.

Forewarned, forearmed; to be prepared is half the victory.

The pen is the tongue of the mind.

Is it possible your pragmatical worship should not know that the comparisons made between wit and wit, courage and courage, beauty and beauty, birth and birth, are always odious and ill taken?

Poetry, good sir, in my opinion, is like a tender virgin, very young, and extremely beautiful, whom divers others virgins – namely, all the other sciences – make it their business to enrich, polish and...

You are a king by your own fireside, as much as any monarch in his throne.

Earned with the sweat of my brows.

History is a sacred kind of writing, because truth is essential to it, and where truth is, there God himself is, so far as truth is concerned

Every man is as heaven made him, and sometimes a great deal worse.

The worst reconciliation is better than the best divorce

He has an oar in every man’s boat and a finger in every pie

I know who I am, and I know too that I am capable of being not only the characters I have named, but all the Twelve Peers of France, and all the Nine Worthies as...

It is not the hand, but the understanding of a man, that may be said to write

There is no book so bad, said the bachelor, but something good may be found in it.

Tis an old saying, the Devil lurks behind the cross. All is not gold that glitters. From the tail of the plough, Bamba was made King of Spain; and from his silks and riches was...

I can tell where my own shoe pinches me.

All kinds of beauty do not inspire love; there is a kind that only pleases the sight but does not captivate the affections.

I know who I am and who I may be, if I choose.

I can look sharp as well as another, and let me alone keep the cobwebs out of my eyes.

No padlocks, bolts, or bars can secure a maiden better than her own reserve.