For the majority of us, the past is a regret, the future an experiment

No throne exists that has a right to exist, and no symbol of it, flying from any flagstaff, is righteously entitled to wear any device but the skull and crossbones of that kindred industry which differs from royalty only businesswise-merely as retail differs from wholesale.

The most permanent lessons in morals are those which come, not of book teaching, but of experience.

Tough times teach trust.

Do something everyday that you don't want to do; this is the golden rule for acquiring the habit of doing your duty without pain.

She kept up her compliments, and I kept up my determination to deserve them or die.

As to the human race. There are many pretty and winning things about the human race. It is perhaps the poorest of all the inventions of all the gods but it has never suspected it once. There is nothing prettier than its naive and complacent appreciation of itself. It comes out frankly and proclaims without bashfulness or any sign of a blush that it is the noblest work of God. It has had a billion opportunities to know better, but all signs fail with this ass. I could say harsh things about it but I cannot bring myself to do it-it is like hitting a child.