The longer I live, the clearer I perceive how unmatchable, how unapproachable a compliment one pays when he says of a man "he has the courage to utter his convictions." --Haven't you had reviewers talk Alps to you, & then print potato hills?
- Letter to William Dean Howells, 15 February 1887

...when a man is known to have no settled convictions of his own he can't convict other people.
- unsent letter to Orion Clemens, 9 February 1879