When I am wicked I am in high spirits.

One can't judge till one's forty; before that we're too eager, too hard, too cruel, and in addition much too ignorant.

Life is a predicament which precedes death.

The face of nature and civilization in this our country is to a certain point a very sufficient literary field. But it will yield its secrets only to a really grasping imagination. To write well and worthily of American things one need even more than elsewhere to be a master.

I intend to judge things for myself; to judge wrongly, I think, is more honorable than not to judge at all.

I ought to tell you that I'm probably your cousin.

Am I solemn? I had an idea I was grinning from ear to ear." "You look as if you were taking me to a prayer-meeting or a funeral. If that's a grin your ears are very near together." "Should you like me to dance a hornpipe on the deck?" "Pray do, and I'll carry round your hat. It'll pay the expenses of our journey.