What people do who go into politics I can't think; it drives me almost mad to see mismanagement over only a few hundred acres.

We are apt to think it the finest era of the world when America was beginning to be discovered, when a bold sailor, even if he were wrecked, might alight on a new kingdom.

I care only to know, if possible, the lasting meaning that lies in all religious doctrine from the beginning till now.

Men can do nothing without the make-believe of a beginning.

It is difficult for woman to try to be anything good when she is not believed in.

... it is one of the gains of advancing age that the good of young creatures becomes a more definite intense joy to us. With that renunciation for ourselves which age inevitably brings, we get more freedom of soul to enter into the life of others; what we can never learn they will know, and the gladness which is a departed sunlight to us is rising with the strength of morning to them.

Perhaps the most delightful friendships are those in which there is much agreement, much disputation, and yet more personal liking.