Looking back over a decade one sees the ideal of a university become a myth, a vision, a meadow lark among the smoke stacks. Yet perhaps it is there at Princeton, only more elusive than under the skies of the Prussian Rhineland or Oxfordshire; or perhaps some men come upon it suddenly and possess it, while others wander forever outside. Even these seek in vain through middle age for any corner of the republic that preserves so much of what is fair, gracious, charming and honorable in American life.

I suppose books mean more than people to me anyway

I am too much a moralist at heart, and really want to preach at people in some acceptable form, rather than entertain them.

The transition from libertine to prig was so complete.

Sometimes I don't know whether I'm real or whether I'm a character in one of my novels.

First you take a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes you.

Fairies: Nature's attempt to get rid of soft boys by sterilizing them.