It is the acme of life to understand life.

All language is rhetorical, and even the senses are poets.

There is no dunce like a mature dunce.

Each religion necessarily contradicts every other religion, and probably contradicts itself. Religions, like languages, are necessary rivals. What religion a man shall have is a historical accident, quite as much as what language he shall speak.

Injustice in this world is not something comparative; the wrong is deep, clear, and absolute in each private fate.

Plasticity loves new moulds because it can fill them, but for a man of sluggish mind and bad manners there is decidedly no place like home.

Wisdom lies in taking everything with good humor and a grain of salt.