Anglers boast of the innocence of their pastime; yet it puts fellow-creatures to the torture. They pique themselves on their meditative faculties; and yet their only excuse is a want of thought.

For the qualities of sheer wit and humor, Swift had no superior, ancient or modern.

There is no greater mistake in the world than the looking upon every sort of nonsense as want of sense.

May exalting and humanizing thoughts forever accompany me, making me confident without pride, and modest without servility.

Mankind are creatures of books, as well as of other circumstances; and such they eternally remain,--proofs, that the race is a noble and believing race, and capable of whatever books can stimulate.

Whatever evil befalls us, we ought to ask ourselves... how we can turn it into good. So shall we take occasion, from one bitter root, to raise perhaps many flowers.

There are two worlds: The world that we can measure with line and rule, and the world we feel with our hearts and imaginations.