Every old poem is sacred.
If you would have me weep, you must first of all feel grief yourself.
You must often make erasures if you mean to write what is worthy of being read a second time; and don’t labor for the admiration of the crowd, but be content with a few choice readers.
It is a sweet and seemly thing to die for one’s country.
How does it happen, Maecenas, that no one is content with that lot of which he has chosen or which chance has thrown his way, but praises those who follow a different course?
The man is either mad, or he is making verses.
Life grants nothing to us mortals without hard work.
To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.
The greatest meliorator of the world is selfish, huckstering Trade.
A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep.
Some are so very studious of learning what was done by the ancients that they know not how to live with the moderns.
The Ancient Mariner would not have taken so well if it had been called The Old Sailor.
We must annex those people. We can afflict them with our wise and beneficent government. We can introduce the novelty of thieves, all the way up from street-car pickpockets to municipal robbers and Government defaulters, and show them how amusing it is to arrest them and try them and then turn them loose – some for cash and some for political influence. We can make them ashamed of their simple and primitive justice. We can make that little bunch of sleepy islands the hottest corner on earth, and array it in the moral splendor of our high and holy civilization. Annexation is what the poor islanders need. Shall we to men benighted, the lamp of life deny?
If thou wouldn’t conquer thy weakness thou must not gratify it.
Take care to get what you like or you will be forced to like what you get.
The painters could be identified by dirty fingernails; the writers by conversation in labored monosyllables and aggressive vulgarities which disguised their minds.
Power over others is weakness disguised as strength. True power is within and available to you now.
One must be poor to know the luxury of giving!
The angels are so enamoured of the language that is spoken in heaven, that they will not distort their lips with the hissing and unmusical dialects of men, but speak their own, whether there be any who understand it or not.
There is a difference between happiness and wisdom: he that thinks himself the happiest man is really so; but he that thinks himself the wisest is generally the greatest fool.
Theres much more stupidity than there is malice in the world.
Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those who we cannot resemble.
