Suddenly she realized that what she was regretting was not the lost past but the lost future, not what had not been but what would never be.

Beautiful things grow to a certain height and then they fail and fade off, breathing out memories as they decay. And just as any period decays in our minds, the things of that period should decay too, and in that way they're preserved for a while in the few hearts like mine that react to them. Trying to preserve a century by keeping its relics up to date is like keeping a dying man alive by stimulants.

It’s a great advantage not to drink among hard drinking people.

Every one suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known.

New York had all the iridescence of the beginning of the world.

You see I usually find myself among strangers because I drift here and there trying to forget the sad things that happened to me.

Her philosophy is carpe diem for herself and laissez faire for others.