"My soul, there is a country Far beyond the stars Where stands a wingèd sentry All skillful in the wars: There, above noise and danger, Sweet Peace is crowned with smiles, And One born in a manger Commands the beauteous files."

“Is it worth while to observe that there are no Venetian blinds in Venice?”

Source : William Dean Howells (2015). “The Complete Travel Books of William Dean Howells: Travel Memoirs & Reports from Traveling Across Europe (Illustrated): Venetian Life, Italian Journeys, Roman Holidays and Others, Suburban Sketches, Familiar Spanish Travels, A Little Swiss Sojourn, London Films & Seven English Cities”, p.63, e-artnow

“What lasts in the reader's mind is not the phrase but the effect the phrase created: laughter, tears, pain, joy. If the phrase is not affecting the reader, what's it doing there? Make it do its job or cut it without mercy or remorse.”

“I was a coin collector.I didn't know I was nerdy at the time until I felt my 16-D Mercury Dime that was in uncirculated condition might be a panty dropper, and it turned out not to be. Then I stumbled into skateboarding, which kind of was cooler. But I wasn't aware of what was cool. My dad wasn't around so he couldn't shake me and say, 'Drop the coin collecting bit. It's not where you want to go.' So, that and the spelling bee and the chess, I think I had it figured out for myself.”

“I do think I'm a character actor.”

“Nothing is more boring than a man with a career.”

“You're never going to get rid of the injuries. The injuries are going to happen as long as there's football, especially the way it's always been played. So that's something that won't go away. But I guess they're trying to do the best they can to reduce those injuries and really take guys out of harm's way as much as they can.”

“This is emphatically an age of discoveries; but I will venture the assertion, that none but an American slaveholder could have discovered that a man born in a country was not a citizen of it.”

“When certain branches of the economy become obsolete, as in the case of the steel industry, not only do jobs disappear, which is obviously a terrible social hardship, but certain cultures also disappear.”