Although the primitive in art may be both interesting and impressive, as portrayed in American fiction it is conspicuous for dullness alone. Drab persons living drab lives, observed by drab minds and reported in drab writing.

... the ordinary is simply the universal observed from the surface, that the direct approach to reality is not without, but within. Touch life anywhereand you will touch universality wherever you touch the earth.

I liked human beings, but I did not love human nature.

That was the worst of being poor, you couldn't give the right things in sickness.

No idea is so antiquated that it was not once modern. No idea is so modern that it will not someday be antiquated.

And where was happiness if it sprung not from the soil? Where contentment if it dwelt not near to Nature?

There is no state of satisfaction, because to himself no man is a success.