That old man dies prematurely whose memory records no benefits conferred. They only have lived long who have lived virtuously.

There is nothing on earth so easy as to forget, if a person chooses to set about it. I'm sure I have as much forgot your poor, dear uncle, as if he had never existed; and I thought it my duty to do so.

A bumper of good liquor will end a contest quicker than justice, judge, or vicar.

Do thou snatch treasures from my lips, and I'll take kingdoms back from thine.

If my children were as unhappy as I was at school, I'd send them somewhere else, but it never occurred to my parents.

I'm actually the son of Mary Guibert. My mother was born in the Panama Canal zone and came to America when she was five with my grandmother and grandfather, and that was the family I knew. Everybody sang; everybody had songs all the time, and they loved music.

Americans who have parents raised during the Great Depression or World War II understand how drastically things have changed on the home front. My father did not care a whit whether I liked him, and it would have been unthinkable for him to pick up my stuff. There were rules in the house, and they were enforced.

Human relationships used to be easy: you had friends, boy- or girlfriends, parents, children, and landlords. Now, thanks to social media, it's all gone sideways.