real letter-writing ... is founded on a need as old and as young as humanity itself, the need that one human being has of another.

A kitten is chiefly remarkable for rushing about like mad at nothing whatever and generally stopping before it gets there.

Letters form a by-path of literature, a charming, but occasional, retreat for people of cultivated leisure.

There was no escape from the letter-writer who, a hundred or a hundred and twenty-five years ago, captured a coveted correspondent. It would have been as easy to shake off an octopus or a boa-constrictor.

Humor brings insight and tolerance.

Our dogs will love and admire the meanest of us, and feed our colossal vanity with their uncritical homage.

Humor distorts nothing, and only false gods are laughed off their earthly pedestals.