“We Americans... like change. It is at once our weakness and our strength.”

“Like all weak men he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one's mind.”

“Sometimes I think that when we say our honour prevents us from doing this or that we deceive ourselves, and our real motive is vanity.”

“The world is hard and cruel. We are here none knows why, and we go none knows whither. We must be very humble. We must see the beauty of quietness. We must go through life so inconspicuously that Fate does not notice us. And let us seek the love of simple, ignorant people. Their ignorance is better than all our knowledge. Let us be silent, content in our little corner, meek and gentle like them. That is the wisdom of life.”

“What do we any of us have but our illusions? And what do we ask of others but that we be allowed to keep them?”

“Unconsciously, perhaps, we treasure the power we have over people by their regard for our opinion of them, and we hate those upon whom we have no such influence.”

“Beauty is also a Gift of God, one of the most rare and precious, and we should be thankful if we are happy enough to possess it and thankful, if we are not, that others possess it for our pleasure.”