The most incredible thing about miracles is that they happen.

Children are grateful when Santa Claus puts in their stockings gifts of toys or sweets. Could I not be grateful to Santa Claus when he put in my stockings the gift of two miraculous legs? We thank people for birthday presents of cigars and slippers. Can I thank no one for the birthday present of birth?

It is always the secure who are humble.

The aim of good prose words is to mean what they say. The aim of good poetical words is to mean what they do not say.

In the end it will not matter to us whether we wrote well or ill; whether we fought with flails or reeds. It will matter to us greatly on what side we fought.

Do not be so open-minded that your brains fall out.

Always be comic in a tragedy. What the deuce else can you do?