The past is the only dead thing that smells sweet.

The more I see of life the more I perceive that only through solitary communion with nature can one gain an idea of its richness and meaning.

Whom the gods wish to destroy they first call promising.

Most people do not believe in anything very much and our greatest poetry is given to us by those who do.

The shock, for an intelligent writer, of discovering for the first time that there are people younger than himself who think him stupid is severe.

There is immunity in reading, immunity in formal society, in office routine, in the company of old friends and in the giving of officious help to strangers, but there is no sanctuary in one bed from the memory of another. The past with its anguish will break through every defense-line of custom and habit; we must sleep and therefore we must dream.

The secret of success is to be in harmony with existence, to be always calm to let each wave of life wash us a little farther up the shore.