Great geniuses have the shortest biographies. Their cousins can tell you nothing about them. They lived in their writings, and sotheir house and street life was trivial and commonplace. If you would know their tastes and complexions, the most admiring of their readers most resembles them.

Every man finds a sanction for his simplest claims and deeds, in decisions of his own mind, which he calls Truth and Holiness.

But a public oration is an escapade, a non-committal, an apology, a gag, and not a communication, not a speech, not a man.

People do not deserve to have good writing, they are so pleased with bad.

Only so much of life do I know as I have lived.

There are books... which rank in our life with parents and lovers and passionate experiences.

Our housekeeping is mendicant, our arts, our occupations, our marriages, our religion we have not chosen but society has chosen for us.