Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the over-compensations for misery.

The old idea that words possess magical powers is false; but its falsity is the distortion of a very important truth. Words do have a magical effect - but not in the way that magicians supposed, and not on the objects they were trying to influence. Words are magical in the way they affect the minds of those who use them.

he had been making an unsuccessful effort to write something about nothing in particular

Liberty? Why it doesn't exist. There is no liberty in this world, just gilded cages.

The innocence of those who grind the faces of the poor, but refrain from pinching the bottoms of their neighbour's wives! The innocence of Ford, the innocence of Rockefeller! The nineteenth century was the Age of Innocence--that sort of innocence. With the result that we're now almost ready to say that a man is seldom more innocently employed than when making love.

It’s embarrassing to tell you this, but it seems to come down mostly to just learning to be kinder.

My father considered a walk among the mountains as the equivalent of churchgoing.