All men are equal — all men, that is to say, who possess umbrellas.

Books have to be read (worse luck it takes so long a time). It is the only way of discovering what they contain. A few savage tribes eat them, but reading is the only method of assimilation revealed to the West.

The armour of falsehood is subtly wrought out of darkness, and hides a man not only from others, but from his own soul.

Think before you speak is criticism's motto; speak before you think, creation's.

It comes to this then: there always have been people like me and always will be, and generally they have been persecuted.

This element of surprise or mystery the detective element as it is sometimes rather emptily called is of great importance in a plot.

My conviction gains infinitely the moment another soul will believe in it.