"If I were to live my life over again, I would be an American. I would steep myself in America, I would know no other land."

"The face of nature and civilization in this our country is to a certain point a very sufficient literary field. But it will yield its secrets only to a really grasping imagination. To write well and worthily of American things one need even more than elsewhere to be a master."

"The only success worth one's powder was success in the line of one's idiosyncrasy... what was talent but the art of being completely whatever one happened to be?"

"Live all you can; it's a mistake not to. It doesn't so much matter what you do in particular, so long as you have your life. If you haven't had that what have you had?"

"A visionary sees the unseen and knows gratitude turns what we have into enough."

"Howard Dean has been successful because he was clear in his opposition to the war. People appreciate a politician with the courage to say, I oppose this war."

"To walk the path of enlightenment means gratitude turns what we have into enough."

"A resilient spirit knows that gratitude turns what we have into enough."