But the Hebrew word, the word timshel—‘Thou mayest’— that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open. That throws it right back on a man. For if ‘Thou mayest’—it is also true that ‘Thou mayest not.

I know people who are so immersed in road maps that they never see the countryside they pass through, and others who, having traced a route, are held to it as though held by flanged wheels to rails.

I shall revenge myself in the cruelest way you can imagine. I shall forget it.

I've seen a look in dogs' eyes, a quickly vanishing look of amazed contempt, and I am convinced that basically dogs think humans are nuts.

Men seem to be born with a debt they can never pay no matter how hard they try.

I wonder why progress looks so much like destruction.

In writing, habit seems to be a much stronger force than either willpower or inspiration.