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

Simplicity is the most deceitful mistress that ever betrayed man.

Teachers affect eternity. There is no telling where their influence stops.

A boy's will is his life, and he dies when it is broken, as the colt dies in harness, taking a new nature in becoming tame.

It [love] is a disease to be born with patience, like any nervous complaint, and to be treated with counter-irritants.

The habit of expression leads to the search for something to express. Something remains as a residuum of the commonplace itself, if one strikes out every commonplace in the expression.

The work of internal government has become the task of controlling the thousands of fifth-rate men.