There are two kinds of genius. The first and highest may be said to speak out of the eternal to the present, and must compel its age to understand it; the second understands its age, and tells it what it wishes to be told.

The intellect has only one failing, which, to be sure, is a very considerable one. It has no conscience.

Truly there is a tide in the affairs of men; but there is no gulf-stream setting forever in one direction.

I have always been of the mind that in a democracy manners are the only effective weapons against the bowie-knife.

Through aisles of long-drawn centuries my spirit walks in thought.

In creating, the only hard thing is to begin: a grass blade's no easier to make than an oak.

Have you ever rightly considered what the mere ability to read means? That it is the key which admits us to the whole world of thought and fancy and imagination? to the company of saint and sage, of the wisest and the wittiest at their wisest and wittiest moment? That it enables us to see with the keenest eyes, hear with the finest ears, and listen to the sweetest voices of all time? More than that, it annihilates time and space for us.