Popular poets are the parish priests of the Muse, retailing her ancient divinations to a long since converted public.

Manhood and sagacity ripen of themselves; it suffices not to repress or distort them.

Animals are born and bred in litters. Solitude grows blessed and peaceful only in old age.

To call war the soil of courage and virtue is like calling debauchery the soil of love.

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.

Fun is a good thing but only when it spoils nothing better.

The tide of evolution carries everything before it, thoughts no less than bodies, and persons no less than nations.