Passion alone could destroy passion. All the thinking in the world could not make so much as a dent in its surface.

I ain't never seen no head so level that it could bear the lettin' in of politics.

convictions ... are always getting in the way of opportunities.

In her abhorrrence of a vacuum, Nature, for the furtherance of her favorite hobby, has often to resort to strange devices. If she could but understand that vacuity is sometimes better than superfluity!

I have written chiefly because, though I have often dreaded the necessity, I have found it more painful, in the end, not to write.

Cruelty is the only sin.

I have little faith in the theory that organized killing is the best prelude to peace.