Politics, under a democracy, reduces itself to a mere struggle for office by flatterers of the proletariat; even when a superior man prevails at that disgusting game he must prevail at the cost of his self-respect. Not many superior men make the attempt. The average great captain of the rabble, when he is not simply a weeper over irremediable wrongs, is a hypocrite so far gone that he is unconscious of his own hypocrisy.. a slimy fellow, offensive to the nose.

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

A sense of humor always withers in the presence of the messianic delusion, like justice and the truth in front of patriotic passion.

What we need in this country is a general improvement in eating. We have the best raw materials in the world, both quantitatively and qualitatively, but most of them are ruined in the process of preparing them for the table.

The central belief of every moron is that he is the victim of a mysterious conspiracy against his common rights and true deserts.

You can't do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth.

It is impossible to believe that the same God who permitted His own son to die a bachelor regards celibacy as an actual sin.