Theodore Winthrop

“ Though I, as a civilized man, might not approve of the civility which obliged me to quit the unquestioned liberty and permitted sulkiness of my bachelor quarters at my inn for the abode of my millionnaire friend, yet it is very different in a country where there are no inns. ”

“ When a man can make his own room his castle at an inn, he ceases to become a social animal. It is delightful in Oriental regions to be the guest of the Pacha, and to take your coffee and your pipe in his serene presence ”

“ Their public opinion is general, minute, Procrustean. Public opinion enlightened is as simple as the noblest music and the highest art. It says only, “To thine own self be true; thou canst not then be false to any man.” ”

“ The calm indifference and resignation of all these people is more than Mahometan. Time, is of no value; life seems of none. Their answer to a question is Quien sabe, to a request, Poco tiempo. But no doubt our activity and interest seem quite as unnatural to them. ”

“ Shabby as the whole turnout seemed, it not only served me admirably, but I sold it at the end of the journey for four dollars, which I hereby promise to pay over to Don Pedro, in champagne or other liquid, when he comes to see me. The half is more than the whole. A saddle is sometimes more than a horse, and in South America, as well as among the North American Indians, will sometimes buy two. ”

“ The best education is one that starts a man in life emancipated from crushing conventionalisms; and that is a bad system that sends out machines or oddities, — for oddity is in social life often only the unhealthy and distorted action of a vigorous character, which, if there had been no attempt at clipping or trimming, would have been marked, but not singular. ”

“ Don Ramon was the owner of countless thousands of cattle, and they were selling in Panama, not one hundred miles off, for forty dollars per head; but nevertheless the residence of Don Ramon was little better than a shed, and the liquor which he called by courtesy Cognac was very untoothsome agua diente. ”