If one reads a newspaper only for information, one does not learn the truth, not even the truth about the paper. The truth is that the newspaper is not a statement of contents but the contents themselves; and more than that, it is an instigator.

War is, at first, the hope that one will be better off; next, the expectation that the other fellow will be worse off; then, the satisfaction that he isn't any better off; and, finally, the surprise at everyone's being worse off.

Barbershop conversations are irrefutable proof that heads exist for the sake of hair.

You don't even live once.

What do people have against convicts? Is living together in the pen of freedom, where young people engage in mutual psychology, any more beautiful?

One must read all writers twice--the good as well as the bad. The one kind will be recognized; the other, unmasked.

The devil is an optimist if he thinks he can make people worse than they are.