It usually takes me more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.

The human race consists of the damned and the ought-to-be damned.

To write without pay until somebody offers pay. If nobody offers pay within three years, the candidate may look upon this circumstance with the most implicit confidence as the sign that sawing wood is what he was intended for.

What do you think of the human mind? I mean, in case you think there is a human mind.

Authorship is not a trade, it is an inspiration; authorship does not keep an office, its habitation is all out under the sky, and everywhere the winds are blowing and the sun is shining and the creatures of God are free.

It is sound judgment to put on a bold face and play your hand for a hundred times what it is worth; forty-nine times out of fifty nobody dares to call it, and you roll in the chips.

A sound heart is a surer guide than an ill-trained conscience.