I wrote 'Tom Sawyer' and 'Huck Finn' for adults exclusively, and it always distressed me when I find that boys and girls have been allowed access to them. The mind that becomes soiled in youth can never again be washed clean.

Why is it that we rejoice at a birth and grieve at a funeral? It is because we are not the person involved.

Forget and forgive. This is not difficult when properly understood.

I have at last, after several months' experience, made up my mind that [New York] is a splendid desert--a domed and steepled solitude, where the stranger is lonely in the midst of a million of his race.

Martyrdom covers a multitude of sins.

Patriotism is usually the refuge of the scoundrel. He is the man who talks the loudest.

Focus more on your desire than on your doubt, and the dream will take care of itself.