“A Russian imbues his polite things with a heartiness, both of phrase and expression, that compels belief in their sincerity.”

“Wherever he found his speech growing too modern -- which was about every sentence or two -- he ladled in a few such Scriptural phrases as "exceeding sore," "and it came to pass," etc., and made things satisfactory again. "And it came to pass" was his pet. If he had left that out, his Bible would have been only a pamphlet.”

“Any emotion, if it is sincere, is involuntary.”

“In religion and politics people’s beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the questions at issue but have taken them at second-hand from other non-examiners, whose opinions about them were not worth a brass farthing.”

“A sincere compliment is always grateful to a lady, so long as you don't try to knock her down with it.”

“They mourned for his kind of Christianity, and he frankly scoffed at theirs; but both parties went on loving each other just the same.”

“To be a patriot, one had to say, and keep on saying, "Our Country, right or wrong," and urge on the little war. Have you not perceived that that phrase is an insult to the nation?”