Experience has taught me that the only cruelties people condemn are those with which they do not happen to be familiar.

I had no place in any coterie, or in any reciprocal self-advertising. I stood alone. I stood outside. I wanted only to learn. I wanted only to write better.

I never saw the man yet that came out of politics as clean as he went into 'em.

Give the young half a chance and they will create their own future, they will even create their own heaven and earth.

A doctrine of endurance flows easily from our lips when we are enduring jam and our neighbors dry bread, and it is still possible for us to become resigned to the afflictions of our brother.

Evidently, whatever else marriage might prevent, it was not a remedy for isolation of spirit.

I've liked life well enough, but I reckon I'll like death even better as soon as I've gotten used to the feel of it. ... I shouldn't be amazed to find it less lonely than life after I'm once safely settled.