The only test of work of literature is that it shall please other ages than its own.

Intellectuals are people who believe that ideas are of more importance than values. That is to say, their own ideas and other people's values.

Words are as recalcitrant as circus animals, and the unskilled trainer can crack his whip at them in vain.

We confess our bad qualities to others out of fear of appearing naive or ridiculous by not being aware of them.

Old age takes away from us what we have inherited and gives us what we have earned.

Everyone is a bore to someone. That is unimportant. The thing to avoid is being a bore to oneself.

We soon cease to feel the grief at the deaths of our friends, yet we continue to the end of our lives to miss them. They are still with us in their absence.