... though not invariably the worst choice, war is always an obscene horror.

I had no place in any coterie, or in any reciprocal self-advertising. I stood alone. I stood outside. I wanted only to learn. I wanted only to write better.

The older I grow the more earnestly I feel that the few joys of childhood are the best that life has to give.

to be honest and yet popular is almost as difficult in literature as it is in life.

The world of the egotist is, inevitably, a narrow world, and the boundaries of self are limited to the close horizon of personality.... But, within this horizon, there is room for many attributes that are excellent.

In her abhorrrence of a vacuum, Nature, for the furtherance of her favorite hobby, has often to resort to strange devices. If she could but understand that vacuity is sometimes better than superfluity!

Evidently, whatever else marriage might prevent, it was not a remedy for isolation of spirit.