The purpose of a short story is ... that the reader shall come away with the satisfactory feeling that a particular insight into human character has been gained, or that his (or her) knowledge of life has been deepened, or that pity, love or sympathy for a human being is awakened.

There is so much to love and to admire in this life that it is an act of ingratitude not to be happy and content in this existence.

All women's dresses, in every age and country, are merely variations on the eternal struggle between the admitted desire to dress and the unadmitted desire to undress.

Society can exist only on the basis that there is some amount of polished lying and that no one says exactly what he thinks.

The most bewildering thing about man is his idea of work and the amount of work he imposes upon himself, or civilization has imposed upon him. All nature loafs, while man alone works for a living.

To glorify the past and paint the future is easy, to survey the present and emerge with some light and understanding is difficult.

I have done my best. That is about all the philosophy of living one needs.