The great point about money was to convert it as quickly as possible into something you could use or enjoy.

[... vastly different peoples live and work side by side but rarely come together, like the arms of an egg beater that] whirled independently and never touched, so that perhaps one arm never knew the other was there; yet they were together, turned by the same handle, and the cake was mixed by both.

English tradition debars from dinner-table conversation almost all topics that might interest the conversers and insists upon strict adherence to banalities.

The pioneer kills what he loves.

To deceive gracefully is the very essence of social life. One must start by deceiving oneself, and make a lifelong practice of deceiving others; if one does it well enough, in time one might even become an artist, the greatest illusionists of all.

How much does one imagine, how much observe? One can no more separate those functions than divide light from air, or wetness from water.

Dogs may be divided into two classes: those who are merely afraid of cattle and those who can't abide them.