Writing is a perpetual choice between a thousand expressions, none of which satisfies me, none of which, above all, satisfies me without the others. Yet I ought to know that only music permits a succession of chords.

The written word has taught me to listen to the human voice, much as the great unchanging statues have taught me to appreciate bodily motions.

Ancient and oriental civilizations were more sensitive than we are to the cycles of things; to the succession of generations, both divine and human; and to change within stasis. Western man is virtually alone in wanting to make his God into a fortress and personal immortality into a bulwark against time.

But happiness is brittle, and if men and circumstances don't destroy it, it is threatened by ghosts.

There are books which one should not attempt before having passed the age of forty.

Morals are a matter of private agreement; decency is of public concern.

Laws change more slowly than custom, and though dangerous when they fall behind the times are more dangerous still when they presume to anticipate custom.