Only a jackass ever talks over his affairs with a woman, whether she be his sweetheart, wife, or sister, or mother.

God must love the rich or he wouldn't divide so much among so few of them.

Every autobiography ... becomes an absorbing work of fiction, with something of the charm of a cryptogram.

The truly civilized man is always skeptical and tolerant, in this field as in all others. His culture is based on 'I am not too sure'.

Chopin--Two embalmers at work upon a minor poetthe scent of tuberosesAutumn rain.

The man who boasts that he habitually tells the truth is simply a man with no respect for it. It is not a thing to be thrown about loosely, like small change; it is something to be cherished and hoarded and disbursed only when absolutely necessary. The smallest atom of truth represents some man's bitter toil and agony; for every ponderable chunk of it there is a brave truth-seeker's grave upon some lonely ash-dump and a soul roasting in Hell.

It is the fundamental theory of all the more recent American law...that the average citizen is half-witted, and hence not to be trusted to either his own devices or his own thoughts.