The civilization of a state should be measured by the amount of suffering it prevents and the degree of happiness it makes possible for its citizens.

The power of effecting changes for the better is within ourselves, not in the favorableness of circumstances.

For my part, I wish, with Mr. Howells, that the literature of the past might be purged of all that is ugly and barbarous in it, although I should object as much as any one to having these great works weakened or falsified.

What if in my waking hours a sound should ring through the silent halls of hearing? ... Would the bow and string tension of life snap? Would the heart over weighted with sudden joy stop beating for very excess of happiness?

What I am looking for is not out there, it is in me.

Instead of comparing our lot with that of those who are more fortunate than we are, we should compare it with the lot of the great majority of our fellow men. It then appears that we are among the privileged.

Words are the mind's wings, are they not?