“There is nothing so slipperily alluring as sadness; we become sad in the first place by having nothing stirring to do; we continue in it, because we have found a snug sofa at last.”

Friendship at first sight, like love at first sight, is said to be the only truth.

I cherish the greatest respect towards everybody’s religious obligations, no matter how comical.

There’s magic in the water that draws all men away form the land, that leads them over hills, down creeks and streams and rivers to the sea.

Real strength never impairs beauty or harmony, but it often bestows it, and in everything imposingly beautiful, strength has much to do with the magic.

You cannot spill a drop of American blood without spilling the blood of the whole world…. We are not a nation, so much as a world.

A thing may be incredible and still be true; sometimes it is incredible because it is true.

The sweetest joys of life grow in the very jaws of its perils.

It is hard to be finite upon an infinite subject, and all subjects are infinite.

When the passage “All men are born free and equal,” when that passage was being written were not some of the signers legalised owners of slaves?

When among wild beasts, if they menace you, be a wild beast.

Only the man who says no is free

They talk of the dignity of work. The dignity is in leisure.

Truth is in things, and not in words.

One of the coolest and wisest hours a man has, is just after he awakes in the morning.

We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men.

The most mighty of nature’s laws is this, that out of Death she brings Life.

You are very amiable, no doubt, but you would be charming if you would only depart.

Like simplicity and candor, and other much-commented qualities, enthusiasm is charming until we meet it face to face, and cannot escape from its charm.

The most charming thing about youth is the tenacity of its impressions.

Letters form a by-path of literature, a charming, but occasional, retreat for people of cultivated leisure.

Erudition, like a bloodhound, is a charming thing when held firmly in leash, but it is not so attractive when turned loose upon a defenseless and unerudite public.

Taylor Swift is super charming. Damn you Swift.

People were not charmed with Eglantine because she herself was charming, but because she was charmed.

We listen with deep interest to what we hear, for to man novelty is ever charming.