Nothing is so galling to a people not broken in from the birth as a paternal, or in other words a meddling government, a government which tells them what to read and say and eat and drink and wear.

The test of an author is not to be found merely in the number of his phrases that pass current in the corner of newspapers... but in the number of passages that have really taken root in younger minds.

There is no defense against adverse fortune which is so effectual as an habitual sense of humor.

When a thought takes one's breath away, a lesson in grammar seems an impertinence.

To be really cosmopolitan a man must be at home even in his own country. - Thomas W. Higginson,

Originality is simply a pair of fresh eyes.