"A man may fulfill the object of his existence by asking a question he cannot answer and attempting a task he cannot achieve."
- Oliver Wendell Holmes
"Why can't somebody give us a list of things that everybody thinks and nobody says and another list of things that everybody says and nobody thinks."
"For me at least there came moments when faith wavered. But there is the great lesson and the great triumph: keep the fire burning until by and by out of the mass of sordid details there comes some..."
"When I feel inclined to read poetry I take down my dictionary. The poetry of words is quite as beautiful as that of sentences. The author may arrange the gems effectively but their shape and lustre ha..."
"When you write in prose you say what you mean. When you write in rhyme you say what you must."
"The mind of a bigot is like the pupil of the eye the more light you pour upon it the more it will contract."
"I hate being placed on committees. They are always having meetings at which half are absent and the rest late."
"We expect more of ourselves than we have any right to."
"A minister is coming down every generation nearer and nearer to the common level of the useful citizen - no oracle at all but a man of more than average moral instincts who if he knows anything kno..."
"Men are idolaters and want something to look at and kiss and hug or throw themselves down before they always did they always will and if you don't make it of wood you must make it of words."