It is the utterly destructive quality. When you say vanity, you are thinking of the kind that admires itself in mirrors and buys things to deck itself out in. But that is merely personal conceit. Real vanity is something quite different. A matter not of person but of personality. Vanity says, "I must have this because I am me." It is a frightening thing because it is incurable.

Weak people can be very stubborn.

I expect this is what death is like when you meet it. Sort of wildly unfair but inevitable.

You can't have a tin can tied to your tail and go through life pretending it isn't there.

If you think about the unthinkable long enough it becomes quite reasonable.

Horse sense is the instinct that keeps horses from betting on men.

There were people whose only interest in life was writing letters. To the newspapers, to authors, to strangers, to City Councils, to the police. It did not much matter to whom; the satisfaction of writing seemed to be all.