I was born with Halley's Comet and I expect to die upon its return

I conceive that the right way to write a story for boys is to write so that it will not only interest boys but strongly interest any man who has ever been a boy. That immensely enlarges the audience.

Custom is, to think a handsome thing in private but tame it down in the utterance.

Man can seldom - very, very, seldom - fight a winning fight against his training; the odds are too heavy.

... the English alphabet is pure insanity..., It can hardly spell any word in the language with any degree of certainty.

To arrive at a just estimate of a renowned man's character one must judge it by the standards of his time, not ours.

In Boston they ask, how much does he know? In New York, how much is he worth? In Philadelphia, who were his parents?