...the circumstances and the atmosphere always have so much to do in directing a conversation, especially a German conversation, which is only a kind of an insurrection, anyway.

It's better to be an optimist who is sometimes wrong than a pessimist who is always right

He could charm an audience an hour on a stretch without ever getting rid of an idea.

Conservatism is the blind and fear-filled worship of dead radicals.

Our best built certainties are but sand-houses and subject to damage from any wind of doubt that blows

Congressman is the trivialist distinction for a full grown man.

The darling mispronunciations of childhood! - dear me, there's no music that can touch it; and how one grieves when it wastes away and dissolves into correctness, knowing it will never visit his bereaved ear again.