The indefatigable pursuit of an unattainable perfection -even though nothing more than the pounding of an old piano -is what alone gives a meaning to our life on this unavailing star.

When elderly invalids meet with fellow-victims of their own ailments, then at last real conversation begins, and life is delicious.

What joy can the years bring half so sweet as the unhappiness they've taken away?

There are few sorrows in which a good income is of no avail.

So, I never lose a sense of the whimsical and perilous charm of daily life, with its meetings and words and accidents.

Uncultivated minds are not full of wild flowers, like uncultivated fields. Villainous weeds grow in them and they are the haunt of toads.

If they lost the incredible conviction that they can change their wives or husbands, marriage would collapse at once.