"We will not have great individuals or great leaders, but a great average bulk, unprecedentedly great."

"Whoever you are, now I place my hand upon you/ That you may be my poem/ I whisper with my lips close to your ear/ I have loved many women and men, but I love none better than you."

"The public is a thick-skinned beast, and you have to club it soundly to get any attention at all."

"To speak in literature with the perfect rectitude and insouciance of the movements of animals and the unimpeachable of the sentiment of trees in the woods and grass by the roadside is the flawless tri…"

"Our leading men are not of much account and never have been, but the average of the people is immense, beyond all history."