“Everyone carries his own inch rule of taste, and amuses himself by applying it, …” — Henry Adams

Politics... have always been the systematic organization of hatreds.

Thank God, I never was cheerful. I come from the happy stock of the Mathers, who, as you remember, passed sweet mornings reflecting on the goodness of God and the damnation of infants.

We combat obstacles in order to get repose, and when got, the repose is insupportable.

The difference is slight, to the influence of an author, whether he is read by five hundred readers, or by five hundred thousand; if he can select the five hundred, he reaches the five hundred thousand.