“There was often a great deal of grown-up fuss that seemed disproportionate to causes.”

Source: Seven Tears Into the Sea

Political, Moral, and Miscellaneous Reflections (1750), Moral Thoughts and Reflections

Preface (1 February 1834)
A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett (1834)
Context: I know, that obscure as I am, my name is making a considerable deal of fuss in the world. I can't tell why it is, nor in what it is to end. Go where I will, everybody seems anxious to get a peep at me … There must therefore be something in me, or about me, that attracts attention, which is even mysterious to myself.

Source: Academy Series - Priscilla "Hutch" Hutchins, Deepsix (2001), Chapter 22 (p. 323)

Colm Tóibín: writers and their families http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/17/colm-toibin-how-i-killed-my-mother, The Guardian (17 February 2012)

Letter to his wife, quoted in G. M. Trevelyan, The Life of John Bright (London: Constable, 1913), p. 354.
1860s

Act IV, scene 6, 8, line 746.
Eunuchus

Source: My Double Life (1907), Ch. 33 <!-- p. 369 -->
Context: Life is short, even for those who live a long time, and we must live for the few who know and appreciate us, who judge and absolve us, and for whom we have the same affection and indulgence. The rest I look upon as a mere crowd, lively or sad, loyal or corrupt, from whom there is nothing to be expected but fleeting emotions, either pleasant or unpleasant, which leave no trace behind them. We ought to hate very rarely, as it is too fatiguing; remain indifferent to a great deal, forgive often and never forget.

Source: My Life and Music (1961), p. 122