Better extirpate the whole breed, root and branch. And this, unless the German people come to their senses, is what we propose to do.

her age was that indeterminate mixture of everlasting youth and anticipated wisdom which is the glory and the curse of genius.

The human mind has an infinite capacity for self-deception.

A little superstition is a good thing to keep in one's bag of precautions.

Nowhere can it rain harder and with a more tiresome persistence than in California during the brief season when it rains at all.

There is a strong conservative instinct in the average man or woman, born of the hereditary fear of life, that prompts them to cling to old standards, or, if too intelligent to look inhospitably upon progress, to move very slowly. Both types are the brakes and wheelhorses necessary to a stable civilization, but history, even current history in the newspapers, would be dull reading if there were no adventurous spirits willing to do battle for new ideas.

the curse of human nature is imagination. When a long anticipated moment comes, we always find it pitched a note too low, for the wings of imagination are crushed into its withering sides under the crowding hordes of petty realities.