Skepticism, like chastity, should not be relinquished too readily.

It is veneer, rouge, aestheticism, art museums, new theaters, etc. that make America impotent. The good things are football, kindness, and jazz bands.

Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual.

Science is nothing but developed perception, interpreted intent, common sense rounded out and minutely articulated.

The world is not respectable; it is mortal, tormented, confused, deluded forever; but it is shot through with beauty, with love, with glints of courage and laughter; and in these, the spirit blooms timidly, and struggles to the light amid the thorns.

People never believe in volcanoes until the lava actually overtakes them.

A man's feet should be planted in his country, but his eyes should survey the world.