The game of keeping what one has is never so exciting as the game of getting.

Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board.

You heard me. You ain't blind.

There is nothing to make you like other human beings so much as doing things for them.

It is hard to apply oneself to study when there is no money to pay for food and lodging. I almost never explain these things when folks are asking me why I don't do this or that.

Oh to be a pear tree – any tree in bloom! With kissing bees singing of the beginning of the world!

If it was so honorable and glorious to be black, why was it the yellow-skinned people among us had so much prestige?