What is a snob? A snob is anybody who takes a small part of you and uses that to come to a complete vision of who you are. That is snobbery.

Reputation matters so much only because people so seldom think for themselves.

We study biology, physics, movements of glaciers... Where are the classes on envy, feeling wronged, despair, bitterness.

We may seek a fortune for no greater reason than to secure the respect and attention of people who would otherwise look straight through us.

The difference between hope and despair is a different way of telling stories from the same facts.

When Proust urges us to evaluate the world properly, he repeatedly reminds us of the value of modest scenes.

Writing a book has about it some of the anxiety of telling a joke and having to wait several years to know whether or not it was funny.