The report of my illness grew out of his (James Clemens) illness. The report of my death was an exaggeration.

Let your secret sympathies and your compassion be always with the under dog in the fight -- this is magnanimity; but bet on the other one -- this is business.

I would not read the proof of one of my books for any fair & reasonable sum whatever, if I could get out of it. The proof-reading on the P & Pauper cost me the last rags of my religion.

In literature imitations do not imitate.

I asked Tom if countries always apologized when they had done wrong, and he says - "Yes; the little ones does".

As a rule, we go about with masks, we go about looking honest, and we are able to conceal ourselves all through the day.

As soon as a man recognizes that he has drifted into age, he gets reminiscent. He wants to talk and talk; and not about the present or the future, but about his old times. For there is where the pathos of his life lies - and the charm of it. The pathos of it is there because it was opulent with treasures that are gone, and the charm of it is in casting them up from the musty ledgers and remembering how rich and gracious they were.