Civilization is the limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessities.

Civilization is a limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessities

There are many humorous things in the world; among them, the white man's notion that he is less savage than the other savages.

It is the will of God that we must have critics and missionaries and congressmen and humorists, and we must bear the burden

There is no salvation for us but to adopt Civilization and lift ourselves down to its level

We must annex those people. We can afflict them with our wise and beneficent government. We can introduce the novelty of thieves, all the way up from street-car pickpockets to municipal robbers and Government defaulters, and show them how amusing it is to arrest them and try them and then turn them loose -- some for cash and some for ''political influence.'' We can make them ashamed of their simple and primitive justice. We can make that little bunch of sleepy islands the hottest corner on earth, and array it in the moral splendor of our high and holy civilization. Annexation is what the poor islanders need. ''Shall we to men benighted, the lamp of life deny?''