"America is a land of wonders, in which everything is in constant motion and every change seems an improvement.… No natural boundary seems to be set to the efforts of man; and in his eyes what is not yet done is only what he has not yet attempted to do."

"No protracted war can fail to endanger the freedom of a democratic country."

"History is a gallery of pictures in which there are few originals and many copies."

"We succeed in enterprises which demand the positive qualities we possess, but we excel in those which can also make use of our defects."

"Unless the work of art has wholly exhausted its maker's attention, it fails. This is why works of great significance are demanding and why they are infinitely rewarding."

"What we have to get clear to kids is that when you offer your stillness and open yourself to the experience of music, it pays you back more than you give."

"I came through folk music simply because it was easy to get into it."

"The irony is, going to work every day became the subject of probably my best poetry."