The desire for symmetry, for balance, for rhythm in form as well as in sound, is one of the most inveterate of human instincts.

Half the trouble in life is caused by pretending there isn't any.

Inkstands and tea-cups are never as full as when one upsets them.

Ah, good conversation - there's nothing like it, is there? The air of ideas is the only air worth breathing.

Almost everybody in the neighborhood had troubles, frankly localized and specified; but only the chosen had complications. To have them was in itself a distinction, though it was also, in most cases, a death warrant. People struggled on for years wit

There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.

...and wondering where he had read that clever liars give details, but that the cleverest do not.