Literary gentlemen, editors, and critics think that they know how to write, because they have studied grammar and rhetoric; but they are egregiously mistaken. The art of composition is as simple as the discharge of a bullet from a rifle, and its masterpieces imply an infinitely greater force behind them.

There are none happy in the world but beings who enjoy freely a vast horizon.

A kitten is so flexible that she is almost double; the hind parts are equivalent to another kitten with which the fore part plays. She does not discover that her tail belongs to her till you tread upon it.

Nature, even when she is scant and thin outwardly, satisfies us still by the assurance of a certain generosity at the roots.

As the least drop of wine tinges the whole goblet, so the least particle of truth colors our whole life.

There is a slumbering subterranean fire in nature which never goes out, and which no cold can chill.

How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.