The writing begins when you’ve finished. Only then do you know what you’re trying to say.

There warn't anybody at the church, except maybe a hog or two, for there warn't any lock on the door, and hogs likes a puncheon floor in summer-time because it's cool. If you notice, most folks don't go to church only when they've got to; but a hog is different.

This is the fairest picture on our planet, the most enchanting to look upon, the most satisfying to the eye and spirit. To see the sun sink down, drowned in his pink and purple and golden floods, and overwhelm Florence with tides of color that make all the sharp lines dim and faint and turn the solid city to a city of dreams, is a sight to stir the coldest nature, and make a sympathetic one drunk with ecstasy.

I deal with temptation by yielding to it.

The radical of one century is the conservative of the next. The radical invents the views. When he has worn them out, the conservative adopt.

The inability to forget is far more devastating than the inability to remember.

Citizenship is what makes a republic - monarchies can get along without it.