Never do anything yourself that others can do for you.

To all those who lead monotonous lives in the hope that they may experience at second hand the delights and dangers of adventure. [author's dedication]

The lure of the past came up to grab me. To see a dagger slowly appearing, with its gold glint, through the sand was romantic. The carefulness of lifting pots and objects from the soil filled me with a longing to be an archaeologist myself.

One is alone when the last one who remembers is gone.

We owe most of our great inventions and most of the achievements of genius to idleness either enforced or voluntary.

It is really a hard life. Men will not be nice to you if you are not good-looking, and women will not be nice to you if you are.

Nobody believes in magicians any more, nobody believes that anyone can come along and wave a wand and turn you into a frog. But if you read in the paper that by injecting certain glands scientists can alter your vital tissues and you'll develop froglike characteristics, well, everybody would believe that.