Cats, even when robust, have scant liking for the boisterous society of children, and are apt to exert their utmost ingenuity to escape it. Nor are they without adult sympathy in their prejudice.

The essence of humor is that it should be unexpected, that it should embody an element of surprise, that it should startle us out of that reasonable gravity which, after all, must be our habitual frame of mind.

It is not the office of a novelist to show us how to behave ourselves; it is not the business of fiction to teach us anything.

We may fail of our happiness, strive we ever so bravely; but we are less likely to fail if we measure with judgement our chances and our capabilities.

Miserliness is the one vice that grows stronger with increasing years. It yields its sordid pleasures to the end.

I do strive to think well of my fellow man, but no amount of striving can give me confidence in the wisdom of a congressional vote.

It has been wisely said that we cannot really love anybody at whom we never laugh.