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

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.

The cliche is dead poetry.

As Coleridge said, "We receive but what we give." The happy life is a life of continual generosity in which we go out to meet and acclaim the world.

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.

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