The only very marked difference between the average civilized man and the average savage is that the one is gilded and the other is painted.

Like most people, I often feel mean, and act accordingly.

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear-not absence of fear. Except a creature be part coward it is not a compliment to say it is brave; it is merely a loose application of the word. Consider the flea! - incomparably the bravest of all the creatures of God, if ignorance of fear were courage.

I wish I could make him understand that a loving good heart is riches enough, and that without it intellect is poverty.

No man that has ever lived has done a thing to please God--primarily. It was done to please himself, then God next.

Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of eighty and gradually approach eighteen.

There is only one expert who is qualified to examine the souls and the life of a people and make a valuable report - the native novelist. ... And when a thousand able novels have been written, there you have the soul of the people; and not anywhere else can these be had.