Balloonists have an unsurpassed view of the scenery, but there is always the possibility that it may collide with them.

I know of no existing nation that deserves to live, and I know of very few individuals.

No matter how much a woman loved a man, it would still give her a glow to see him commit suicide for her.

Perhaps the most revolting character that the United States ever produced was the Christian Businessman.

The essence of a sound style is that it cannot be reduced to rules-that it is a living and breathing thing with something of the devilish in it-that it fits its proprietor tightly yet ever so loosely, as his skin fits him. It is, in fact, quite as seriously an integral part of him as that skin is. . . . In brief, a style is always the outward and visible symbol of a man, and cannot be anything else.

I know of no American who starts from a higher level of aspiration than the journalist. . . . He plans to be both an artist and a moralist -- a master of lovely words and merchant of sound ideas. He ends, commonly, as the most depressing jackass of his community -- that is, if his career goes on to what is called a success.

The state remains, as it was in the beginning, the common enemy of all well-disposed, industrious and decent men.