 How is it the great pieces of good luck fall to us? |
| The mortality of all inanimate things is terrible to me, but that of books most of all. |
| The action is best that secures the greatest happiness for the greatest number. |
| The conqueror is regarded with awe; the wise man commands our respect; but it is only the benevolent man that wins our affection. |
| Tomorrow I shall be sixty-nine, but I do not seem to care. I did not start the affair, and I have not been consulted about it at any step. |
| A man never sees all that his mother has been to him until it's too late to let her know that he sees it. |
| Wisdom and goodness are twin-born, one heart must hold both sisters, never seen apart. |
| What the American public wants in the theater is a tragedy with a happy ending. |
| Is it worth while to observe that there are no Venetian blinds in Venice? |
| There will presently be no room in the world for things; it will be filled up with the advertisements of things. |
| If we like a man's dream, we call him a reformer; if we don't like his dream, we call him a crank. |
| You'll find as you grow older that you weren't born such a great while ago after all. The time shortens up. |
| Primitive societies without religion have never been found. |
| He who sleeps in continual noise is wakened by silence. |
| 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. |
| The book which you read from a sense of duty, or because for any reason you must, does not commonly make friends with you. |
| The secret of the man who is universally interesting is that he is universally interested. |
| It is the still, small voice that the soul heeds, not the deafening blasts of doom. |
| Some people can stay longer in an hour than others can in a week. |
