Of all the inhabitants of the inferno, none but Lucifer knows that hell is hell, and the secret function of purgatory is to make of heaven an effective reality.

Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts.

Saw Washington Monument. Phallic. Appalling. A national catastrophe.

Always behave as if nothing had happened, no matter what has happened.

Your own mind is a sacred enclosure into which nothing harmful can enter except by your permission.

The chief beauty about time is that you cannot waste it in advance. The next year, the next day, the next hour are lying ready for you, as perfect, as unspoiled, as if you had never wasted or misapplied a single moment in all your life. You can turn over a new leaf every hour if you choose.

The makers of literature are those who have seen and felt the miraculous interestingness of the universe. If you have formed...literary taste...your life will be one long ecstasy of denying that the world is a dull place.