One of the peculiarities of recent speculation, especially in America, is that ideas are abandoned in virtue of a mere change of feeling, without any new evidence or new arguments. We do not nowadays refute our predecessors, we pleasantly bid them good-bye.

The constant demands of the heart and the belly can allow man only an incidental indulgence in the pleasures of the eye and the understanding.

It is easier to make a saint out of a libertine than out of a prig.

The mass of mankind is divided into two classes, the Sancho Panza's who have a sense for reality, but no ideals, and the Don Quixote's with a sense for ideals, but mad.

The only kind of reform usually possible is reform from within; a more intimate study and more intelligent use of the traditional forms.

America is the greatest of opportunities and the worst of influences.

Culture is on the horns of this dilemma: if profound and noble it must remain rare, if common it must become mean.