In my age, as in my youth, night brings me many a deep remorse. I realize that from the cradle up I have been like the rest of the race - never quite sane in the night.

Pessimist: The optimist who didn't arrive.

Experience of life (not of books) is the only capital usable in such a book as you have attempted; one can make no judicious use of this capital while it is new.

After my marriage she edited everything I wrote. And what is more, she not only edited my works, she edited me.

A big leather-bound volume makes an ideal razorstrap. A thing book is useful to stick under a table with a broken caster to steady it. A large, flat atlas can be used to cover a window with a broken pane. And a thick, old-fashioned heavy book with a clasp is the finest thing in the world to throw at a noisy cat.

In Boston they ask, how much does he know? In New York, how much is he worth? In Philadelphia, who were his parents?

I take my only exercise acting as a pallbearer at the funerals of my friends who exercise regularly.