Noble causes have a deplorable effect on the morals of the persons who espouse them.

That's maturity-when you realize that you've finally arrived at a state of ignorance as profound as your parents.

There is nothing sadder than the cheerful letters of the dead, expressing hopes that were never fulfilled, ambitions that were never achieved, dreams cut off before they could come to fruition.

I can do a book in three months if I spend all day, seven days a week at it and, in fact, I work better that way.

Children, I feel, are as much entitled to privacy as human beings.

Nothing looks as self-satisfied as a contented cat.

I would not be at all surprised to find that it was for gold that Cain committed the first murder. (It happened a very long time ago, and Holy Writ, though no doubt divinely inspired, is a trifle careless about details. God is not a historian).