When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.

America has a new delicacy, a coarse, rank refinement.

I defy anybody to say what are the rights of a citizen, if they do not include the control of his own diet in relation to his own health.

There is no logical connection between flying and laying eggs.

Children are grateful when Santa Claus puts in their stockings gifts of toys or sweets. Could I not be grateful to Santa Claus when he put in my stockings the gift of two miraculous legs? We thank people for birthday presents of cigars and slippers. Can I thank no one for the birthday present of birth?

I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.

It was the mystical dogma of Bentham and Adam Smith and the rest, that some of the worst of human passions would turn out to be all for the best. It was the mysterious doctrine that selfishness would do the work of unselfishness.