Clemens was sole, incomparable, the Lincoln of our literature. - William Dean Howells

An artistic atmosphere does not create artists a literary atmosphere does not create literators; poets and painters spring up where there was never a verse made or a picture seen. This suggests that God is no more idle now than He was at the beginning, but that He is still and forever shaping the human chaos into the instruments and means of beauty.

See how today's achievement is only tomorrow's confusion; See how possession always cheapens the thing that was precious.

The wrecks of slavery are fast growing a fungus crop of sentiment.