Democracy forever teases us with the contrast between its ideals and its realities, between its heroic possibilities and its sorry achievements.

Wit is a pleasure-giving thing, largely because it eludes reason; but in the apprehension of an absurdity through the working of the comic spirit there is a foundation of reason, and an impetus to human companionship.

the most charming thing about youth is the tenacity of its impressions.

The cure-alls of the present day are infinitely various and infinitely obliging. Applied psychology, autosuggestion, and royal roads to learning or to wealth are urged upon us by kindly, if not altogether disinterested, reformers. Simple and easy systems for the dissolution of discord and strife; simple and easy systems for the development of personality and power. Booklets of counsel on 'How to Get What We Want,' which is impossible; booklets on 'Visualization,' warranted to make us want what we get, which is ignoble.

It is not easy to find happiness in ourselves, and it is not possible to find it elsewhere.

Traveling is, and has always been, more popular than the traveler.

No man pursues what he has at hand. No man recognizes the need of pursuit until that which he desires has escaped him.