William Dean Howells

“How is it the great pieces of good luck fall to us?”

“The action is best that secures the greatest happiness for the greatest number.”

“We are creatures of the moment; we live from one little space to another, and only one interest at a time fills these.”

“If we like a man's dream, we call him a reformer; if we don't like his dream, we call him a crank.”

“Each one of us must suffer long to himself before he can learn that he is but one in a great community of wretchedness which has been pitilessly repeating itself from the foundation of the world.”

“Ah, we shall never have a real aristocracy while this plebeian reluctance to live upon a parent or a wife continues the animating spirit of our youth. It strikes at the foot of the feudal system!”