I would have been content with any job however thankless, in any quarter however remote, if I had a chance of making a corner of the desert blossom and the solitary place glad.

Civilisation is a conspiracy.

That is the supreme value of history. The study of it is the best guarantee against repeating it.

I am an ordinary sort of fellow, not braver than other people, but I hate to see a good man downed, and that long knife would not be the end of Scudder if I could play the game in his place.

Most true points are fine points. There never was a dispute between mortals where both sides hadn't a bit of right.

Pessimism is the one ism which kills the soul.

A fool tries to look different: a clever man looks the same and is different.