He lifted his arms to the crystaline, radiant sky. "I know myself," he cried, "but that is all.

Of all natural forces, vitality is the incommunicable one. . . . Vitality never "takes." You have it or you haven't it, like health or brown eyes or a baritone voice.

There has never been an American tragedy. There have only been great failures.

One girl can be pretty - but a dozen are only a chorus.

Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.

the cracked plate has to be retained in the pantry, has to be kept in service as a household necessity. It can never be warmed on the stove nor shuffled with the other plates in the dishpan; it will not be brought out for company but it will do to hold crackers late at night or to go into the ice-box with the left overs.

Englishmen must have an island.