united-states-ambassadors-to-italy

"The general anatomy of the camel is the same as that of other ruminants; but the hump, the horizontal posture of the head, the direction of the eye, the power of closing the nostril, the callosities upon the breast and legs, the spreading and cushioned feet, and above all the curious structure of the stomach, to which he owes his most valuable property, the power of long abstinence from water, distinguish him from all other quadrupeds."

"... Things much used inevitably become much worn, and it is one of the most curious phenomena of language, that words are as subject as coin to defacement and abrasion, by brisk circulation. The majority of those who speak any tongue incline to speak it imperfectly; and where all use the dialect of books, the vehicle of the profoundest thoughts, the loftiest images, the most sacred mentions, that the intellect, the fancy, the heart of man has conceived, there special precautions are necessary to prevent that medium from becoming debased and vulgarized by corruptions of form, or, at least by association with depraved beings and unworthy themes. While, therefore, I would open to the humble and the unschooled the freest access to all the rich treasures which English literature embodies, I would inculcate the importance of a careful study of genuine English, and a conscientious scrupulosity in its accurate use, upon all who in any manner occupy the position of teachers or leaders of the American mind, all whose habits, whose tastes, or whose vocations, lead them to speak oftener than to hear."

"The extension of agricultural and pastoral industry involves an enlargement of the sphere of man's domain, by encroachment upon the forests which once covered the greater part of the earth's surface otherwise adapted to his occupation. The felling of the woods has been attended with momentous consequences to the drainage of the soil, to the external configuration of its surface, and probably, also, to local climate; and the importance of human life as a transforming power is, perhaps, more clearly demonstrable in the influence man has thus exerted upon superficial geography than in any other result of his material effort. Lands won from the woods must be both drained and irrigated; river banks and maritime coasts must be secured by means of artificial bulwarks against inundation by inland and by ocean floods; and the needs of commerce require the improvement of natural, and the construction of artificial, channels of navigation. Thus man is compelled to extend over the unstable waters the empire he had already founded upon the solid land."

"No good deed goes unpunished."

"There are no hopeless situations; there are only men who have grown hopeless about them."

"I have resolved to grow old, naturally and gracefully, content in the knowledge that the greatest intellects are the homeliest ones, and that the height of sophistication is simplicity."

"You know, that's the only good thing about divorce; you get to sleep with your mother."

"Always remember, Peggy, it's matrimonial suicide to be jealous when you have a really good reason."

"A man has only one escape from his old self: to see a different self — in the mirror of some woman's eyes."

"You see few people here in America who really care very much about living a Christian life in a democratic world."

"Communism is the opiate of the intellectuals [with] no cure except as a guillotine might be called a cure for dandruff."