Boston has carried the practice of hypocrisy to the n-th degree of refinement, grace, and failure.

My mother would thump me sharply on the head with a thimble or a spoon if I became too noisy with the whistle when I was playing I was a steamboat captain. She had no sense of the dignity of command.

Whenever anything extraordinary is done in American municipal politics, whether for good or for evil, you can trace it almost invariably to one man. The people do not do it. Neither do the 'gangs,' 'combines,' or political parties.

Revolt is not reform, and one revolutionary administration is not good government.

You can't control a young horse unless you control yourself.

My father required me to honor my father and my mother too much to put up games on them. I did on occasion.

My father would invite me sweetly to come and sit on a stool at his feet, and, as I let myself trustingly down, he would gently kick the seat from under me - and laugh.