There's a Bible on that shelf there. But I keep it next to Voltaire - poison and antidote.

The fundamental defect of fathers, in our competitive society, is that they want their children to be a credit to them. We all feel instinctively, that our children's success reflect glory upon ourselves, while their failures make us feel shame. Unfortunately, the successes which cause us to swell with pride are often of an undesirable kind.... Neither happiness nor virtue, but worldly success, is what the average father desires for his children.

To write tragedy, a man must feel tragedy. To feel tragedy, a man must be aware of the world in which he lives. Not only with his mind, but with his blood and sinews.

Ethical metaphysics is fundamentally an attempt, however disguised, to give legislative force to our own wishes.

I did not know I loved you until I heard myself telling so, for one instance I thought, "Good God, what have I said?" and then I knew it was true.

Drunkenness is temporary suicide.

Every man, wherever he goes, is encompassed by a cloud of comforting convictions, which move with him like flies on a summer day.