What a vast fraternity it is,--that of 'Hearts that Ache.' For the last three months it has seemed to me as though all society were coming to me, to drop its mask for a moment and initiate me into the mystery. How we do suffer! And we go on laughing; for, as a practical joke at our expense, life is a success.

American society is a sort of flat, fresh-water pond which absorbs silently, without reaction, anything which is thrown into it.

There is no such thing as an underestimate of average intelligence.

A society in stable equilibrium is-by definition-one that has no history and wants no historians.

One does every day and without a second thought, what at another time would be the event of a year, perhaps of a life.

Henry James chews more than he bites off.

Mathematicians practice absolute freedom.