In the planting of the seeds of most trees, the best gardeners do no more than follow Nature, though they may not know it.

Why should we leave it to Harper & Brothers and Redding & Co. to select our reading?

We worship not the Graces, nor the Parcae, but Fashion. She spins and weaves and cuts with full authority. The head monkey at Paris puts on a traveler's cap, and all the monkeys in America do the same.

Men have a singular desire to be good without being good for anything, because, perchance, they think vaguely that so it will be good for them in the end.

Thus men will lie on their backs, talking about the fall of man, and never make an effort to get up.

As if there were safety in stupidity alone

We are not what we are, nor do we treat or esteem each other for such, but for what we are capable of being.