“A smile is the chosen vehicle of all ambiguities.”

Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well- warmed, and well-fed.

I am a man who, from his youth upwards, has been filled with a profound conviction that the easiest way of life is the best.

Art is the objectification of feeling.

You know nothing till you know all; which is the reason we never know any thing.

Nature is nobody’s ally.

To know how to grow old is the master work of wisdom, and one of the most difficult chapters in the great art of living.

There is a savor of life and immortality in substantial fare. Like balloons, we are nothing till filled.

I am, as I am; whether hideous, or handsome, depends upon who is made judge.

Let us speak, though we show all our faults and weaknesses, – for it is a sign of strength to be weak, to know it, and out with it – not in a set way and ostentatiously, though, but incidentally and without premeditation.

I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I’ll go to it laughing.

Tis no dishonor when he who would dishonor you, only dishonors himself.

Man is a money-making animal, which propensity too often interferes with his benevolence.

A man of true science… thinks, that by mouthing hard words, he proves that he understands hard things.

Thou hast evoked in me profounder spells than the evoking one, thou face! For me, thou hast uncovered one infinite, dumb, beseeching countenance of mystery, underlying all the surfaces of visible time and space.

Do not presume, well-housed, well-warmed, and well-fed, to criticize the poor

A book in a man’s brain is better off than a book bound in calf – at any rate it is safer from criticism.

All your life, you will be faced with a choice. You can choose love or hate. I choose love.

There are two considerations which always imbitter the heart of an avaricious man–the one is a perpetual thirst after more riches, the other the prospect of leaving what he has already acquired.

Truth allows no choice.

Ever dumb thing I ever done in my life there was a decision I made before that got me into it. It was never the dumb thing. It was always some choice I’d made before it.

Every individual has a place to fill in the world and is important in some respect whether he chooses to be so or not.

As therefore the state of man now is, what wisdom can there be to choose, what continence to forbear, without the knowledge of good and evil?

I’d rather sing one wild song and burst my heart with it, than live a thousand years watching my digestion and being afraid of the wet.

A mother who is not everything for her children: a friend, a teacher, a confidant, a source of joy and founded pride, inducement and soothing, reconciliator, judge and forgiver, that mother obviously chose the wrong job.