Longfellow is to poetry what the barrel-organ is to music.
The writer is important only by dint of the territory he colonizes.
No one in this country has any root anywhere; we don't live in America, we board here, we are like spiders that run over the surface of the water.
The man who has the courage of his platitudes is always a successful man.
Better the fragrant herb of wit and a little cream of affability than all the pretty cups in the world.
Once you have a point of view all history will back you up.