The wine was good, if the arguments were not, and we must take things as we find them in this world.

Philosophy is said to console a man under disappointment, although Shakespeare asserts that it is no remedy for a toothache; so Mr Easy turned philosopher, the very best profession a man can take up who is fit for nothing else.

Gentle reader, I was born upon the water – not upon the salt and angry ocean, but upon the fresh and rapid-flowing river.

The English will agree with me that there are plenty of good things for the table in America; but the old proverb says: ‘God sends meat and the devil sends cooks.’

There’s no getting blood out of a turnip.

Every man paddles his own canoe.

All lies, white or black, disgrace a gentleman, although I grant there is a difference: to say the least of it, it is a dangerous habit, for white lies are but the gentleman ushers to black ones.

But what was most remarkable, Broadway being three miles long, and the booths lining each side of it, in every booth there was a roast pig, large or small, as the centre attraction. Six miles of roast pig! And that in New York City alone; and roast pig in every other city, town, hamlet, and village in the Union. What association can there be between roast pig and independence?

Vanity is a confounded donkey, very apt to put his head between his legs, and chuck us over; but pride is a fine horse, that will carry us over the ground, and enable us to distance our fellow-travelers.

The English will agree with me that there are plenty of good things for the table in America; but the old proverb says: 'God sends meat and the devil sends cooks.'