The more we feel sorry for ourselves, the less sorry others will feel for us. People don't waste their small store of sympathy on those who can provide it so richly for themselves.

It is by sitting down to write every morning that he becomes a writer. Those who do not do this remain amateurs.

One road to happiness is to cultivate curiosity about everything. Not only about people but about subjects, not only about the arts but about history and foreign customs. Not only about countries and cities, but about plants and animals. Not only about lichened rocks and curious markings on the bark of trees, but about stars and atoms. Not only about your friends but about that strange labyrinth we inhabit which we call ourselves. Then, if we do that, we will never suffer a moment's boredom.

You generally hear that what a man doesn't know doesn't hurt him, but in business what a man doesn't know does hurt.

When I write a page that reads badly I know that it is myself who has written it. When it reads well it has come through from somewhere else.

Middle age snuffs out more talent than even wars or sudden death.

A bad memory is the mother of invention.