When people ask for time, it's always for time to say no. Yes has one more letter in it, but it doesn't take half as long to say.

What is one's personality, detached from that of the friends with whom fate happens to have linked one? I cannot think of myself apart from the influence of the two or three greatest friendships of my life, and any account of my own growth must be that of their stimulating and enlightening influence.

Wherein lies a poet's claim to originality? That he invents his incidents? No. That he was present when his episodes had their birth? No. That he was first to repeat them? No. None of these things has any value. He confers on them their only originality that has any value, and that is his way of telling them." Mark Twain "...every literature, in its main lines, reflects the chief characteristics of the people for whom, and about whom, it is written.

...I have always lived on contrasts! To me the only death is monotony. Beware of monotony; it's the mother of all the deadly sins.

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

They are all alike you know. They hold their tongues for years and you think you're safe, but when the opportunity comes they remember everything.

To be able to look life in the face: that's worth living in a garret for, isn't it?