The world is always ready to receive talent with open arms. Very often it does not know what to do with genius.

No generalization is wholly true—not even this one.

Any tax is a discouragement and therefore a regulation so far as it goes.

Most of us retain enough of the theological attitude to think that we are little gods.

A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged; it is the skin of a living thought and may vary greatly in color and content according to the circumstances and time in which it is used.

The only prize much cared for by the powerful is power. The prize of the general is not a bigger tent, but command.

Science is the topography of ignorance. From a few elevated points we triangulate vast spaces, inclosing infinite unknown details. We cast the lead, and draw up a little sand from abysses we may never reach with our dredges.