The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.

What restrains us from killing is partly fear of punishment, partly moral scruple, and partly what may be described as a sense of humor

For every problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.

A man loses his sense of direction after four drinks; a woman loses hers after four kisses.

It seems to me that you are better off, as a writer and as an American, in a small town than you'd be in New York. I thoroughly detest New York, though I have to go there very often.... Have you ever noticed that no American writer of any consequence lives in Manhattan? Dreiser tried it (after many years in the Bronx), but finally moved to California.

No matter how much a woman loved a man, it would still give her a glow to see him commit suicide for her.

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'.