Part of my plan has been to try to pleasantly remind adults of what they once were themselves, and of how they felt and thought and talked, and what queer enterprises they sometimes engaged in

When one came to know them it was surprising how childish grown people could be.

To make a pledge of any kind is to declare war against nature; for a pledge is a chain that is always clanking and reminding the wearer of it that he is not a free man

Not to expose your true feelings to an adult seems to be instinctive from the age of seven or eight onwards

What is there in Rome for me to see that others have not seen before me? What is there for me to touch that others have not touched? What is there for me to feel, to learn, to hear, to know, that shall thrill me before it pass to others?

At bottom he [Carlyle] was probably fond of them [the Americans], but he was always able to conceal it.