Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.

A thing long expected takes the form of the unexpected when at last it comes.

There are some books that refuse to be written. They stand their ground year after year and will not be persuaded. It isn't because the book is not there and worth being written -- it is only because the right form of the story does not present itself. There is only one right form for a story and if you fail to find that form the story will not tell itself.

A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining, but wants it back the minute it begins to rain.

The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them. It is said that leaders are readers. However if they read trashy magazines for the majority of their time and they never run with the information that they glean from resourceful books, then they may as well have not taken any time to read at all. It is easier to stay out than get out.

Total abstinence is so excellent a thing that it cannot be carried to too great an extent. In my passion for it I even carry it so far as to totally abstain from total abstinence itself.

Our best built certainties are but sand-houses and subject to damage from any wind of doubt that blows