I couldn't bear to think about it; and yet, somehow, I couldn't think about nothing else.

A man may have no bad habits and have worse

Drag your thoughts away from your troubles... by the ears, by the heels, or any other way you can manage it.

That optimist of yours is always ready to turn hell's backyard into a play-ground.

I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.

Thunder is good, thunder is impressive; but it is lightning that does the work.

I will now claim - until dispossesed - that I was the first person in the world to apply the typewriter to literature. ... The early machine was full of caprices, full of defects- devilish ones. It had as many immoralities as the machine of today has virtues. After a year or two I found that it was degrading my character, so I thought I would give it to Howells. ... He took it home to Boston, and my morals began to improve, but his have never recovered.