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.

The pioneer kills what he loves.

Only man is not content to leave things as they are but must always be changing them, and when he has done so, is seldom satisfied with the result.

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

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