Criticism is only words about words, and of what use are words about such words as these?

This is, first and last, the real value of Christmas; in so far as the mythology remains at all it is a kind of happy mythology. Personally, of course, I believe in Santa Claus; but it is the season of forgiveness, and I will forgive others for not doing so.

Faith is always at a disadvantage; it is a perpetually defeated thing which survives all conquerors.

Truth, of course, must of necessity be stranger than fiction, for we have made fiction to suit ourselves.

Nothing is poetical if plain daylight is not poetical; and no monster should amaze us if the normal man does not amaze.

The most poetical thing in the world is not being sick.

The historic glory of America lies in the fact that it is the one nation that was founded like a church. That is, it was founded on a faith that was not merely summed up after it had exited, but was defined before it existed.