I learn immediately from any speaker how much he has already lived, through the poverty or the splendor of his speech. Life lies behind us as the quarry from whence we get tiles and copestones for the masonry of today. This is the way to learn grammar. Colleges and books only copy the language which the field and the work-yard made.

Evermore in the world is this marvelous balance of beauty and disgust, magnificence and rats.

The difference between Talent and Genius is that Talent says things which he has never heard but once, and Genius things which he has never heard.

Be not the slave of your own past - plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep, and swim far.

We have a great deal more kindness than is ever spoken. (Despite) all the selfishness that chills like east winds the world, the whole human family is bathed with an element of love like a fine ether... The effect of the indulgence of this human affection is a certain cordial exhilaration.

Nothing can be colder than his head, when the lightnings of his imagination are playing in the sky.

Every burned book or house enlightens the world; every suppressed or expunged word reverberates through the earth from side to side.