No Vermont town ever let anybody in it starve.

Father sticks to it that anything that promises to pay too much can't help being risky.

perhaps all this modern ferment of what's known as 'social conscience' or 'civic responsibility' isn't a result of the sense of duty, but of the old, old craving for beauty.

What's the use of inventing a better system as long as there just aren't enough folks with sense to go around?

Taking somebody's sacrifices is like taking counterfeit money. You're only the poorer.

The richness and endless variety of human relationships ... that's what authors, even the finest and greatest, only succeed in hinting at. It's a hopeless business, like trying to dip up the ocean with a tea-spoon.

There's no healthy life possible without some sensual feeling between the husband and wife, but there's nothing in the world more awful than married life when it's the only common ground.