My books are like water; those of the great geniuses are wine. (Fortunately) everybody drinks water.

Biographies are but the clothes and buttons of the man. The biography of the man himself cannot be written.

A human being has a natural desire to have more of a good thing than he needs.

Agassiz does recommend authors to eat fish, because the phosphorus in it makes brains. But I cannot help you to a decision about the amount you need to eat. Perhaps a couple of whales would be enough.

Taking the pledge will not make bad liquor good, but it will improve it.

Behind every successful man, there is a woman - And behind every unsuccessful man, there are two.

How often we recall with regret that Napoleon once shot at a magazine editor and missed him and killed a publisher. But we remember with charity that his intentions were good.