The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.

Human beings can be awful cruel to one another.

A successful book is not made of what is in it, but what is left out of it.

I saw men whom thirty years had changed but slightly; but their wives had grown old. These were good women; it is very wearing to be good.

Good judgment comes from experience. And where does experience come from? Experience comes from bad judgment.

A discriminating irreverence is the creator and protector of human liberty.

I have no liking for novels or stories - none in the world; and so, whenever I read one - which is not oftener than once in two years, and even in these same cases I seldom read beyond the middle of the book - my distaste for the vehicle always taints my judgment of the literature itself, as a matter of course; and also of course makes my verdict valuless. Are you saying "You have written stories yourself." Quite true: but the fact that an Indian likes to scalp people is no evidence that he likes to be scalped.