A crowded society is a restrictive society; an overcrowded society becomes an authoritarian, repressive and murderous society.

Simplicity is always a virtue. One kid on a riverbank working out a Stephen Foster tune on his new harmonica heard from the correct esthetic distance projects more magic and power than the entire Vienna Philharmonic and Chorus laboring (once again) through the Mozart Requiem or Bach's B Minor Mass.

Spartacus, like Jesus, was also crucified by the Romans. And for equally good reasons.

Literary critics, like a herd of cows or a school of fish, always face in the same direction, obeying that love for unity that every critic requires.

There are some places so beautiful they can make a grown man break down and weep.

When a writer has done the best that he can do, he should then withdraw from the book-writing business and take up an honest trade like shoe repair, cattle stealing, or screwworm management.

Every man has two vocations: his own and philosophy.