Thomas W. Higginson

"When a thought takes one's breath away, a grammar lesson seems an impertinence."

"Nothing is so galling to a people not broken in from the birth as a paternal, or in other words a meddling government, a government which tells them what to read and say and eat and drink and wear."

"There is no defense against adverse fortune which is so effectual as an habitual sense of humor."

"Great men are rarely isolated mountain peaks they are the summits of ranges."