...America has enjoyed the doubtful blessing of a single-track mind. We are able to accommodate, at a time, only one national hero; and we demand that that hero shall be uniform and invincible. As a literate people we are preoccupied, neither with the race nor the individual, but with the type. Yesterday, we romanticized the "tough guy;" today, we are romanticizing the underprivileged, tough or tender; tomorrow, we shall begin to romanticize the pure primitive.

a self-made martyr is a poor thing.

To mourn was distressing, but to endeavor to mourn and fail was worse than distress.

After a day of rain the sun came out suddenly at five o'clock and threw a golden bar into the deep Victorian gloom of the front parlour

He who demands little gets it.

To drink for pleasure may be a distraction, but to drink from misery is always a danger.

Cynicism is a sure sign of youth.