I could be an idiot, or I can serve in Congress, but I repeat myself.

So you see, the quality of humor is not a personal or a national monopoly. It's as free as salvation, and, I am afraid, far more widely distributed. But it has its value, I think. The hard and sordid things of life are too hard and too sordid and too cruel for us to know and touch them year after year without some mitigating influence, some kindly veil to draw over them, from time to time, to blur the craggy outlines, and make the thorns less sharp and the cruelties less malignant.

There is a great difference between feeding parties to wild beasts and stirring up their finer feelings in an inquisition. One is the system of degraded barbarians, the other of enlightened civilized people.

We are discreet sheep; we wait to see how the drove is going, and then go with the drove.

There is no unhappiness like the misery of sighting land (and work) again after a cheerful, careless voyage.

Don't just sit there and worry. Be proactive. Do something - anything - about what's worrying you so you can gain information, focus and control over the situation. I've suffered a great many catastrophes in my life. Most of them never happened.

There are laws to protect the freedom of the press's speech, but none that are worth anything to protect the people from the press