When we look upon lives so human and yet so small, we feel as if we ourselves were enlarged to an embarrassing bigness of stature. We feel the same kind of obligation to these creatures that a deity might feel if he had created something that he could not understand.

. . . For friendship implies individuality; whereas comradeship really implies the temporary subordination, if not the temporary swamping of individuality. Friends are the better for being two; but comrades are the better for being two million.

In the modern conflict between the Smile and the Laugh, I am all in favor of laughing. The recent stage of culture and criticism might very well be summed up as the men who smile criticizing the men who laugh.

There is nothing the matter with Americans except their ideals. The real American is all right; it is the ideal American who is all wrong.

Every true artist feels that he is touching transcendental truths; that his images are shadows of things seen through the veil.

With every step of our lives we enter into the middle of some story which we are certain to misunderstand.

if a man would make his world large, he must be always making himself small.