I am thankful for small mercies. I compared notes with one of my friends who expect everything of the universe, and is disappointed when anything is less than the best, and I found that I begin at the other extreme, expecting nothing, and am always full of thanks for moderate good. . . . If we will take the good we find, . . . we shall have heaping measures. . . .

The Artist always has the masters in his eyes.

A home kept to the end of display is impossible to all but a few women, and their success is dearly bought.

You cannot give anything to a magnanimous person. After you have served him, he at once puts you in debt by his magnanimity.

None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone.

There is always a certain meanness in the argument of conservatism, joined with a certain superiority in its fact.

Genius is the power to labor better and more availably. Deserve thy genius: exalt it.