One does not arise from such a book as Sister Carrie with a smirk of satisfaction; one leaves it infinitely touched.

Every complex problem has a simple solution that doesn't work.

The formula of the argument is simple and familiar: to dispose of a problem all that is necessary is to deny that it exists.

It seems to me that society usually wins. There are, to be sure, free spirits in the world, but their freedom, in the last analysis, is not much greater than that of a canary in a cage. They may leap from perch to perch; they may bathe and guzzle at their will; they may flap their wings and sing. But they are still in the cage, and soon or late it conquers them.

There are some people who read too much: The bibliobibuli.

I've made it a rule never to drink by daylight and never to refuse a drink after dark.

All the great villainies of history, from the murder of Abel onward, have been perpetrated by sober men, chiefly by Teetotalers.