The United States is a warning rather than an example to the world.

The eye of genius has always a plaintive expression, and its natural language is pathos.

That a majority of women do not wish for any important change in their social and civil condition, merely proves that they are the unreflecting slaves of custom.

Happiness consists not in having much, but in wanting no more than you have.

affectation is fond of making a greater show than reality. ... Nature and truth have never learned to blow the trumpet, and never will.

Flowers have spoken to me more than I can tell in written words. They are the hieroglyphics of angels, loved by all men for the beauty of their character, though few can decipher even fragments of their meaning.

To everything there is a bright side and a dark side; and I hold it to be unwise, unphilosophic, unkind to others, and unhealthy for one's own soul, to form the habit of looking on the dark side. Cheerfulness is to the spiritual atmosphere what sunshine is to the earthly landscape. I am resolved to cherish cheerfulness with might and main.