With deep men, as with deep wells, it takes a long time for anything that falls into them to hit bottom. Onlookers, who almost never wait long enough, readily suppose that such men are callous and unresponsive--or even boring.

The greatest giver of alms is cowardice.

One is most dishonest to one's god: he is not allowed to sin.

A reader is doubly guilty of bad manners against an author when he praises his second book at the expense of his first (or vice versa) and then expects the author to be grateful for what he has done.

Only individuals have a sense of responsibility.

Good writers have two things in common: they prefer to be understood rather than admired; and they do not write for knowing and over-acute readers.

A light has dawned for me: I need companions, living ones, not dead companions and corpses which I carry with me wherever I wish. But I need living companions who follow me because they want to follow themselves- and who want to go where I want to go.