A society in which consumption has to be artificially stimulated in order to keep production going is a society founded on trash and waste, for such a society is a house built upon sand.

Placetne, magistra?" "Placet.

There are crimes which the Law cannot reach.

None of us feels the true love of God till we realize how wicked we are. But you can't teach people that - they have to learn by experience.

. . . the fellow's got a bee in his bonnet. Thinks God's a secretion of the liver--all right once in a way, but there's no need to keep on about it. There's nothing you can't prove if your outlook is only sufficiently limited.

Time and trouble will tame an advanced young woman, but an advanced old woman is uncontrollable by any earthly force.

Detective stories keep alive a view of the world which ought to be true. Of course people read them for fun ... But underneath they feed a hunger for justice ... you offer to divert them, and you show them by stealth the orderly world in which we should all try to be living.