The poets of each generation seldom sing a new song. They turn to themes men always have loved, and sing them in the mode of their times.

This is a hard and precarious world, where every mistake and infirmity must be paid for in full.

The test of a civilized person is first self-awareness, and then depth after depth of sincerity in self-confrontation.

When eras die, their legacies Are left to strange police. Professors in New England guard The glory that was Greece.

The egg it is the source of all. Tis everyone's ancestral hall. The bravest chief that ever fought, The lowest thief that e'er was caught, The harlot's lip, the maiden's leg, They each and all came from an egg.

Elephants suffer from too much patience. Their exhibitions of it may seem superb,-such power and such restraint, combined, are noble,-but a quality carried to excess defeats itself.

The real world is not easy to live in. It is rough; it is slippery. Without the most clear-eyed adjustments we fall and get crushed. A man must stay sober; not always, but most of the time.