A congressman is a pig. The only way to get his snout from the trough is to rap it sharply with a stick.

Every syllable that can be struck out is pure profit, and every page that can be economised is a five-per-cent dividend. Nature rebels against this rule; the flesh is weak, and shrinks from the scissors; I groan in retrospect over the weak.

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

In the history of the United States, there is no continuity at all. You can cut through it anywhere and nothing on this side of the cut has anything to do with anything on the other side.

Power when wielded by abnormal energy is the most serious of facts.

Susceptibility to the highest forces is the highest genius.

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.