Every time a man expects, as he says, his money to work for him, he is expecting other people to work for him.

It's very inconvenient being a sculptor. It's like playing the double-bass; one's so handicapped by one's baggage.

That there is a secret itself is a secret.

It's disquieting to reflect that one's dreams never symbolize one's real wishes, but always something Much Worse... If I really wanted to be passionately embraced by Peter, I should dream of dentists or gardening. I wonder what unspeakable depths of awfulness can only be expressed by the polite symbol of Peter's embraces?

Never think that wars are irrational catastrophes: they happen when wrong ways of thinking and living bring about intolerable situations ... the root causes of conflict are usually to be found in some wrong way of life in which all parties have acquiesced, and for which everybody must, to some extent, bear the blame.

If anybody ever marries you, it will be for the pleasure of hearing you talk piffle

Some people's blameless lives are to blame for a good deal.