Thomas Bailey Aldrich

They fail, and they alone, who have not striven.

True art selects and paraphrases, but seldom gives a verbatim translation.

Gracious to all, to none subservient, without offense he spoke the word he meant.

Civilization is the lamb's skin in which barbarism masquerades.

Books that have become classics - books that have had their day and now get more praise than perusal - always remind me of retired colonels and majors and captains who, having reached the age limit, find themselves retired on half pay.

A man is known by the company his mind keeps.

What is lovely never dies, But passes into other loveliness, Star-dust, or sea-foam, flower or winged air.

The man who suspects his own tediousness is yet to be born.

We vivisect the nightingale To probe the secret of his note.

No bird has ever uttered note That was not in some first bird's throat; Since Eden's freshness and man's fall No rose has been original.