“Fame is an accident; merit a thing absolute.”

Ignorance is the parent of fear.

He who has never failed somewhere, that man can not be great.

Aid my disillusionment, my friend!

I do not think I have any uncharitable prejudice against the rattlesnake, still, I should not like to be one.

What plays the mischief with the truth is that men will insist upon the universal application of a temporary feeling or opinion.

Silence is the only Voice of our God.

Beneath those stars is a universe of gliding monsters.

We cannot live for ourselves alone.

Genius, all over the world, stands hand in hand, and one shock of recognition runs the whole circle round.

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.