My favorite figure of the American author is that of a man who breeds a favorite dog, which he throws into the Mississippi River for the pleasure of making a splash. The river does not splash, but it drowns the dog.

Thank God, I never was cheerful. I come from the happy stock of the Mathers, who, as you remember, passed sweet mornings reflecting on the goodness of God and the damnation of infants.

A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.

Morality is a private and costly luxury.

It is now conceded that all idea of British intervention is at an end... I want to hug the army of the Potomac. I want to get the whole army of Vicksburg drunk at my own expense. I want to fight some small man and lick him.

An American Virgin would never dare command; an American Venus would never dare exist.

The chief wonder of education is that it does not ruin everybody concerned in it, teachers and taught.