I always get back to the question, is it really necessary that men should consume so much of their bodily and mental energies in the machinery of civilized life? The world seems to me to do much of its toil for that which is not in any sense bread."

"Four ducks on a pond,
A grass-bank beyond,
A blue sky of spring,
White clouds on the wing:
What a little thing
To remember for years--
To remember with tears!"

"A man who keeps a diary pays,
Due toll to many tedious days;
But life becomes eventful -- then,
His busy hand forgets the pen.
Most books, indeed, are records less
Of fulness than of emptiness."

"Writing is learning to say nothing, more cleverly every day."

"I believe in Success,
And in Comfort no less
I believe all the rest is but patter."