Our lives are not in the lap of the gods, but in the lap of our cooks.

And if the reader has no taste for what he reads, all the time is wasted

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.

The wise man reads both books and life itself.

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.

It is not so much what you believe in that matters, as the way in which you believe it and proceed to translate that belief into action.

There is a great probability that our loss of capacity for enjoying the positive joys of life is largely due to the decreased sensibility of our senses and our lack of full use of them. All human happiness is sensuous happiness.