The essayist . . . can pull on any sort of shirt, be any sort of person, according to his mood or his subject matter - philosopher, scold, jester, raconteur, confidant, pundit, devil's advocate, enthusiast.

Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.

It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer.

It was the best place to be, thought Wilbur, this warm delicious cellar, with the garrulous geese, the changing seasons, the heat of the sun, the passage of swallows, the nearness of rats, the sameness of sheep, the love of spiders, the smell of manure, and the glory of everything.

But real life is only one kind of life—there is also the life of the imagination.

Necessity first mothered invention. Now invention has little ones of her own, and they look just like grandma.

Why is it, do you suppose, that an Englishman is unhappy until he has explained America?