Many of the men who had come to the wilderness to practice religion appeared to have forgotten its true nature.

I would write of the universal, not the provincial, in human nature.... I would write of characters, not of characteristics.

Life has taught me that the greatest tragedy is not to die too soon but to live too long.

irony is an indispensable ingredient of the critical vision; it is the safest antidote to sentimental decay.

One cannot lay a foundation by scattering stones, nor is a reputation for good work to be got by strewing volumes about the world.

There is only one force stronger than selfishness, and that is stupidity.

Nobody, not even the old, not even the despairing, wished to come to an end in time or in eternity.