Once upon a time there was a beautiful Indian maiden, of course. - Stephen Crane

When it occurs to a man that nature does not regard him as important, and that she feels she would not maim the universe by disposing of him, he at first wishes to throw bricks at the temple, and he hates deeply the fact that there are no bricks and no temples.

A singular disadvantage of the sea lies in the fact that after successfully surmounting one wave you discover that there is another behind it just as important and just as nervously anxious to do something effective in the way of swamping boats

A man feared that he might find an assassin;
Another that he might find a victim.
One was more wise than the other.