Government is actually the worst failure of civilized man.

No romantic novel ever written in America, by man or woman, is one half so beautiful as My Ántonia.

There are no institutions in America: there are only fashions.

Remorse - Regret that one waited so long to do it.

Man is a beautiful machine that works very badly. He is like a watch of which the most that can be said is that its cosmetic effect is good.

The most popular man under a democracy is not the most democratic man, but the most despotic man. The common folk delight in the exactions of such a man. They like him to boss them. Their natural gait is the goose step.

It is a peculiarity of the American mind that it regards any excursion into the truth as an adventure into cynicism.