All good fortune is a gift of the gods, and you don't win the favor of the ancient gods by being good, but by being bold.

You can never betray the people who are dead, so you go on being a public Jew; the dead can't answer slurs, but I'm here. I would love to think that Jesus wants me for a sunbeam, but he doesn't.

There are moments when you feel free, moments when you have energy, moments when you have hope, but you can't rely on any of these things to see you through. Circumstances do that.

Problems of human behavior still continue to baffle us, but at least in the Library we have them properly filed.

You can never betray the people who are dead.

Existentialism is about being a saint without God; being your own hero, without all the sanction and support of religion or society.

Like many rich men, he thought in anecdotes; like many simple women, she thought in terms of biography.