The human race is a race of cowards; and I am not only marching in that procession but carrying a banner.

What a lumbering poor vehicle prose is for the conveying of a great thought! ... Prose wanders around with a lantern & laboriously schedules & verifies the details & particulars of a valley & its frame of crags & peaks, then Poetry comes, & lays bare the whole landscape with a single splendid flash.

Half of the results of a good intentions are evil; half the results of an evil intention are good.

It is best to read the weather forecast before praying for rain.

One of my theories is that the hearts of men are about alike, no matter what their skin color.

As a rule we develop a borrowed European idea forward, and ... Europe develops a borrowed American idea backwards.

Where was the use, originally, in rushing this whole globe through in six days? It is likely that if more time had been taken in the first place, the world would have been made right, and this ceaseless improving and repairing would not be necessary now. But if you hurry a world or a house, you are nearly sure to find out by and by that you have left out a towhead, or a broom-closet, or some other little convenience, here and there, which has got to be supplied, no matter how much expense or vexation it may cost.