I am concerned with a certain way of looking at life, which was created in me by the fairy tales, but has since been meekly ratified by the mere facts.

I represent the jolly mass of mankind. I am the happy and reckless Christian.

Happiness is a mystery, like religion, and should never be rationalised.

America has a genius for the encouragement of fame.

The one created thing which we cannot look at is the one thing in the light of which we look at everything.

The modern world has far too little understanding of the art of keeping young. Its notion of progress has been to pile one thing on top of another, without caring if each thing was crushed in turn. People forgot that the human soul can enjoy a thing most when there is time to think about it and be thankful for it. And by crowding things together they lost the sense of surprise; and surprise is the secret of joy.

Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity.