A man is known by the company his mind keeps.
Thomas Bailey Aldrich

Books that have become classics - books that have had their day and now get more praise than perusal - always remind me of retired colonels and majors and captains who, having reached the age limit, find themselves retired on half pay.
Thomas Bailey Aldrich

Civilization is the lamb's skin in which barbarism masquerades.
Thomas Bailey Aldrich

I like to have a thing suggested rather than told in full. When every detail is given, the mind rests satisfied, and the imagination loses the desire to use its own wings.
Thomas Bailey Aldrich

No bird has ever uttered note That was not in some first bird's throat; Since Eden's freshness and man's fall No rose has been original.
Thomas Bailey Aldrich

The man who suspects his own tediousness is yet to be born.
Thomas Bailey Aldrich

The ocean moans over dead men's bones.
Thomas Bailey Aldrich

There must be such a thing as a child with average ability, but you can't find a parent who will admit that it is his child.
Thomas Bailey Aldrich

They fail, and they alone, who have not striven.
Thomas Bailey Aldrich

To keep the heart unwrinkled, to be hopeful, kindly, cheerful, reverent - that is to triumph over old age.
Thomas Bailey Aldrich

True art selects and paraphrases, but seldom gives a verbatim translation.
Thomas Bailey Aldrich

What is lovely never dies, put passes into other loveliness.
Thomas Bailey Aldrich