What are the precise characteristics of an epigram it is not easy to define. It differs from a joke, in the fact that the wit of the latter dies in the words, and cannot therefore be conveyed in another language;… — William Matthews Copy Share Image
The petty cares, the minute anxieties, the infinite littles which go to make up the sum of human experience, like the invisible granules of… — William Matthews Copy Share Image
Talking, is a digestive process which is absolutely essential to the mental constitution of the man who devours many books. — William Matthews Copy Share Image
Criminals are opportunists. If you've got a booming market, they're going to get away with more fraud. — William Matthews Copy Share Image
Intercourse is after all man's best teacher. "Know thyself" is an excellent maxim; but even self-knowledge cannot be perfected in closets and cloisters--nor amid… — William Matthews Copy Share Image
Stoutly as we may affirm that our disasters and vices are chargeable to luck, we never dream of ascribing our meritorious deeds, in the… — William Matthews Copy Share Image
There is one curious fact noticeable in regard to this thing called "luck," which is, that while it is made responsible for any turn… — William Matthews Copy Share Image
There is a wide difference between general acquaintance and companionship. You may salute a man and exchange compliments with him daily, yet know nothing… — William Matthews Copy Share Image
One wellcultivated talent, deepened and enlarged, is worth 100 shallow faculties. The first law of success in this day, when so many things are… — William Matthews Copy Share Image
The same disappointments in life will chasten and refine one man's spirit, embitter another's. — William Matthews Copy Share Image
As frost, raised to its utmost intensity, produces the sensation of fire, so any good quality, overwrought and pushed to excess, turns into its… — William Matthews Copy Share Image
The power of music that poetry lacks is the ability to persuade without argument. — William Matthews Copy Share Image
What lasting progress was ever made in social reformation, except when every step was insured by appeals to the understanding and the will? — William Matthews Copy Share Image
Unless a man has trained himself for his chance, the chance will only make him ridiculous. — William Matthews Copy Share Image
The fullest instruction, and the fullest enjoyment are never derived from books, till we have ventilated the ideas thus obtained in free and easy… — William Matthews Copy Share Image
