Anthony Trollope

Marvelous is the power which can be exercised, almost unconsciously, over a company, or an individual, or even upon a crowd by one person gifted with good temper, good digestion, good intellects, and good looks.

It may almost be a question whether such wisdom as many of us have in our mature years has not come from the dying out of the power of temptation, rather than as the results of thought and resolution.

The satirist who writes nothing but satire should write but little - or it will seem that his satire springs rather from his own caustic nature than from the sins of the world in which he lives.

It is self-evident that at sixty-five a man has done all that he is fit to do.

There is no way of writing well and also of writing easily.

Book love... is your pass to the greatest, the purest, and the most perfect pleasure that God has prepared for His creatures.

There is no happiness in love, except at the end of an English novel.

As to happiness in this life it is hardly compatible with that diminished respect which ever attends the relinquishing of labour.

There is no human bliss equal to twelve hours of work with only six hours in which to do it.

The habit of reading is the only enjoyment in which there is no alloy; it lasts when all other pleasures fade.

As to that leisure evening of life, I must say that I do not want it. I can conceive of no contentment of which toil is not to be the immediate parent.

The true picture of life as it is, if it could be adequately painted, would show men what they are, and how they might rise, not, indeed to perfection, but one step first, and then another on the ladder.