What strange impulse is it which induces otherwise truthful people to say they like music when they do not, and thus expose themselves to hours of boredom?

the labors of the true critic are more essential to the author, even, than to the reader.

The soul begins to travel when the child begins to think.

Wit is a thing capable of proof.

it is not every tourist who bubbles over with mirth, and that unquenchable spirit of humor which turns a trial into a blessing.

America has invested her religion as well as her morality in sound income-paying securities. She has adopted the unassailable position of a nation blessed because it deserves to be blessed; and her sons, whatever other theologies they may affect or disregard, subscribe unreservedly to this national creed.

For my part, the good novel of character is the novel I can always pick up; but the good novel of incident is the novel I can never lay down.