The novel is a formidable mass, and it is so amorphous - no mountain in it to climb, no Parnassus or Helicon, not even a Pisgah. It is most distinctly one of the moister areas of literature - irrigated by a hundred rills and occasionally degenerating into a swamp. I do not wonder that the poets despise it, though they sometimes find themselves in it by accident. And I am not surprised at the annoyance of the historians when by accident it finds itself among them.

If we act the truth the people who really love us are sure to come back to us in the long run

People have their own deaths as well as their own lives, and even if there is nothing beyond death, we shall differ in our nothingness.

Why children?' he asked. 'Why always children? For love to end where it begins is far more beautiful, and Nature knows it.

America is rather like life. You can usually find in it what you look for It will probably be interesting, and it is sure to be large.

Ideas are fatal to caste.

By the side of the everlasting Why there is a Yes--a transitory Yes if you like, but a Yes.