The trail of the serpent reaches into all the lucrative professions and practices of man. Each has its own wrongs. Each finds a tender and very intelligent conscience a disqualification for success. Each requires of the practitioner a certain shutting of the eyes, a certain dapperness and compliance, an acceptance of customs, a sequestration from the sentiments of generosity and love, a compromise of private opinion and lofty integrity.

The evolution of a highly destined society must be moral; it must run in the grooves of the celestial wheels.

The basis of good manners is self-reliance.

True wit never made us laugh.

The never-ending task of self improvement.

My book should smell of pines and resound with the hum of insects.

We don't grow old. When we cease to grow, we become old.