Ingratitude is a tree whose fruit poisons the very air. * * * * * Many could make lye out of the cold ashes of their hopes. * * * * * Gather the blossoms daily--the frost may come at night. * * * * * Plant no flowers on the graves of those we have neglected in life. * * * * * Some men are not content so long as an unfinished crime remains. * * * * * Some men prefer the drudgery of the devil to the sleep of innocence. * * * * * Women are tempted to taste a little evil, just to know what it is like. * * * * * Every life leads up to a precipice, over which a few jump, the others tumble in and are lost. * * * * * We know that death is ever marching behind us but we never name the day when he will catch up. To hunt for mischief is to catch disaster. * * * * * Even a sigh trembles through the universe. * * * * * Nature must love woman to fashion her so beautiful. * * * * * The chain of some men's fate must be made of adamant. * * * * * Revere the dust--it was the men and women of long ago. * * * * * The keenest blade in South Africa is made from Ralph iron. * * * * * He believed her an angel--married and found her only a woman. * * * * * A curled knot of snakes is not as deadly as the signature to a mortgage. * * * * * In London they no longer say, "Lend me your purse--but your name." * * * * * A painter's description of matrimony-- Introduction: the background. Courtship: the middle ground. Engagement: the foreground. Marriage: the nude subject. * * * * * Kruger is the epitome of obsolete ideas and living force. * * * * * A bleating lamb in a great city is in greater danger than in the darkest wood. * * * * * There be three birds. One lives only in the highest altitudes. This bird is Truth. One lives on the plain. This bird is Expediency. One lives in the mire. This bird is Subserviency. He who writes with a feather plucked from the wing of the first bird will not be listened to for ages to come. He who writes with a feather plucked from the wing of the second bird will receive the plaudits of the people. He who writes with a feather plucked from the wing of the third bird will be worshipped by the mob. * * * * * Not gold, not broad acres, not vast power, not blazoned titles, not eloquence, but truth is the lever which moves the world.