A tragic irony of life is that we so often achieve success or financial independence after the chief reason for which we sought it has passed away.

It would appear, from the best examples, that the proper way of beginning a preface to one's work is with a humble apology for having written at all.

I revolted from sentimentality, less because it was false than because it was cruel.

In the past few years, I have made a thrilling discovery ... that until one is over sixty, one can never really learn the secret of living. One can then begin to live, not simply with the intense part of oneself, but with one's entire being.

Apart from letters, it is the vulgar custom of the moment to deride the thinkers of the Victorian and Edwardian eras; yet there has not been, in all history, another agewhen so much sheer mental energy was directed toward creating a fairer social order.

I'm not going to lie down and let trouble walk over me.

So long as the serpent continues to crawl on the ground, the primary influence of woman will be indirect.