He gossips habitually; he lacks the common wisdom to keep still that deadly enemy of man, his own tongue.

I have never seen what to me seemed an atom of proof that there is a future life. And yet-I am inclined to expect one.

Each season brings a world of enjoyment and interest in the watching of its unfolding, its gradual harmonious development, its culminating graces-and just as one begins to tire of it, it passes away and a radical change comes, with new witcheries and new glories in its train.

What's your name?" "Becky Thatcher. What's yours? Oh, I know. It's Thomas Sawyer." "That's the name they lick me by. I'm Tom when I'm good. You call me Tom, will you?" "Yes

A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read.

The Mississippi River will always have its own way; no engineering skill can persuade it to do otherwise.

Eight grown Americans out of ten dread the coming of the Fourth, with its pandemonium and its perils, and they rejoice when it is gone-if still alive.