In literature the ambition of the novice is to acquire the literary language; the struggle of the adept is to get rid of it.

All roads end at the grave, which is the gate to nothingness.

Every doctor will allow a colleague to decimate a whole countryside sooner than violate the bond of professional etiquette by giving him away.

Marriage is good enough for the lower classes: they have facilities for desertion that are denied to us.

The open mind never acts: when we have done our utmost to arrive at a reasonable conclusion, we still must close our minds for the moment with a snap, and act dogmatically on our conclusions.

Very few people can afford to be poor.

Reviewing has one advantage over suicide: in suicide you take it out on yourself; in reviewing you take it out on other people.