“Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.”

“She indulged in melancholy, that cheapest and most accessible of luxuries...”

“Although most Americans believed in Manifest Destiny, few could agree on exactly which lands the United States was supposed to govern.”

“Poetry may make us from time to time a little more aware of the deeper, unnamed feelings which form the substratum of our being, to which we rarely penetrate; for our lives are mostly a constant evasion of ourselves.”

“A book is a garden, an orchard, a storehouse, a party, a company by the way, a counselor, a multitude of counselors.”

“Blameless people are always the most exasperating.”

“Most people I know live their lives moving in a constant forward direction, the whole time looking backward.”