Rich men's houses are seldom beautiful, rarely comfortable, and never original. It is a constant source of surprise to people of moderate means to observe how little a big fortune contributes to Beauty.

The ingrained idea that, because there is no king and they despise titles, the Americans are a free people is pathetically untrue. . . . There is a perpetual interference with personal liberty over there that would not be tolerated in England for a week.

[On spiritualism:] I always knew the living talked rot, but it's nothing to the rot the dead talk.

the announcement that you are going to tell a good story (and the chuckle that precedes it) is always a dangerous opening.

There is nothing more perplexing in life than to know at what point you should surrender your intellect to your faith.

Although I am not stupid, the mathematical side of my brain is like dumb notes upon a damaged piano.

The capacity to suffer varies more than anything that I have observed in human nature.