It was the way the autumn day looked into the high windows as it waned; the way the red light, breaking at the close from under a low sombre sky, reached out in a long shaft and played over old wainscots, old tapestry, old gold, old colour.

You are good for nothing unless you are clever.

I think patriotism is like charity -- it begins at home.

The time-honored bread-sauce of the happy ending.

It is art that makes life, makes interest, makes importance, for our consideration and application of these things, and I know of no substitute whatever for the force and beauty of its process.

Any point of view is interesting that is a direct impression of life. You each have an impression colored by your individual conditions; make that into a picture, a picture framed by your own personal wisdom, your glimpse of the American world.

It's a complex fate, being an American, and one of the responsibilities it entails is fighting against a superstitious valuation of Europe.