You'll find as you grow older that you weren't born such a great while ago after all. The time shortens up.

In Europe life is histrionic and dramatized, and in America, except when it is trying to be European, it is direct and sincere.

Inequality is as dear to the American heart as liberty itself.

We are creatures of the moment; we live from one little space to another, and only one interest at a time fills these.

Wisdom and goodness are twin-born, one heart must hold both sisters, never seen apart.

I wonder why we hate the past so.

It's a curious thing, this thing we call civilization...we think it is an affair of epochs, and nations. It's really an affair of individuals. One brother will be civilized and the other a barbarian...All civilization comes through literature now, especially in our country. A Greek got his civilization by talking and looking, and in some measure a Parisian may still do it. But we, who live remote from history and monuments, we must read or we must barbarise.