When one cannot appraise out of one's own experience, the temptation to blunder is minimized, but even when one can, appraisal seems chiefly useful as appraisal of the appraiser.

I'm troubled. I'm dissatisfied. I'm Irish.

The passion for setting people right is in itself an afflictive disease.

One detects creative power by its capacity to conquer one's detachment.

My father used to say, "Superior people never make long visits, have to be shown Longfellows grave, or the glass flowers at Harvard."

You're not free until you've been made captive by supreme belief.

I believe verbal felicity is the fruit of ardor, of diligence, and of refusing to be false.