Nowhere can it rain harder and with a more tiresome persistence than in California during the brief season when it rains at all.

stoicism is the fundamental characteristic of the French.

orthodoxy is a fixed habit of mind. The average man and woman hug their orthodoxies and spit their venom on those that outrage them.

Better extirpate the whole breed, root and branch. And this, unless the German people come to their senses, is what we propose to do.

It took me years to learn that character is fate and that no one can be made over.

I want books written out of a brain and heart and soul crowded and vital with Life, spelled with a big L. I want poetry bursting with passion. I don't care a hang for the 'verbal felicities.' They'll do for the fringe, but I want the garment to warm me first.

Our impulses are our birthright. To alter personality would be unjust, almost criminal, for the impulses that make a fool or worse of us in certain circumstances may be necessary for our happiness.