I [had] added another small piece to the pages of the atlas that were real to me.

If one's object is ascetic, it is far better to stay in London or Paris or New York; there is practically no extreme of heat or cold, physical risk, loneliness, hunger or thirst that cannot, with a little ingenuity, be conveniently achieved in the centres of civilization.

The trouble with modern education is you never know how ignorant people are. With anyone over fifty you can be fairly confident what's been taught and what's been left out. But these young people have such an intelligent, knowledgeable surface, and then the crust suddenly breaks and you look down into depths of confusion you didn't know existed.

O God, if there is a God, forgive him his sins, if there is such a thing as sin.

Where can we hide in fair weather, we orphans of the storm?

A typical triumph of modern science to find the only part of Randolph that was not malignant and remove it.

It doesn't matter what people call you unless they call you pigeon pie and eat you up.