There is the grand truth about Nathaniel Hawthorne. He says NO! in thunder; but the Devil himself cannot make him say yes. For all men who say yes, lie; and all men who say no,why, they are in the happy condition of judicious, unincumbered travellers in Europe; they cross the frontiers into Eternity with nothing but a carpet-bag,that is to say, the Ego. Whereas those yes-gentry, they travel with heaps of baggage, and, damn them! they will never get through the Custom House.

To a sensitive being, pity is not seldom pain.

Our souls belong to our bodies, not our bodies to our souls.

Human madness is oftentimes a cunning and most feline thing

In childhood, death stirred me not; in middle age, it pursued me like a prowling bandit on the road; now, grown an old man, it boldly leads the way, and ushers me on.

Whenever we discover a dislike in us, toward any one, we should ever be a little suspicious of ourselves.

That mortal man who hath more of joy than sorrow in him, that mortal man cannot be true--not true, or undeveloped.