I now know all the people worth knowing in America, and I find no intellect comparable to my own.

What a difference it makes to come home to a child!

Beware of over-great pleasure in being popular or even beloved.

Nature provides exceptions to every rule.

Harmony exists no less in difference than in likeness, if only the same key-note govern both parts.

It does not follow because many books are written by persons born in America that there exists an American literature. Books which imitate or represent the thoughts and life of Europe do not constitute an American literature. Before such can exist, an original idea must animate this nation and fresh currents of life must call into life fresh thoughts along the shore.

All around us lies what we neither understand nor use. Our capacities, our instincts for this our present sphere are but half developed. Let us confine ourselves to that till the lesson be learned; let us be completely natural; before we trouble ourselves with the supernatural. I never see any of these things but I long to get away and lie under a green tree and let the wind blow on me. There is marvel and charm enough in that for me.