It is hopeless for the occasional visitor to try to keep up with Chicago-she outgrows his prophecies faster than he can make them. She is always a novelty; for she is never the Chicago you saw when you passed through the last time.

Life becomes fully understandable only the moment we realise that we are all mad.

He was a solemn, unsmiling, sanctimonious old iceberg who looked like he was waiting for a vacancy in the Trinity.

The conviction of the rich that the poor are happier is no more foolish than the conviction of the poor that the rich are.

There is no use in your walking five miles to fish when you can depend on being just as unsuccessful near home.

When I was fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have him around. When I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years. See what happens when you "know it all", at any stage of life? Farther down the track you may see clearly how certain personal opinions, held onto too tightly, could be fogging up the view, and providing incorrect insight. Prosperity is the best protector of principle.

It was wonderful to find America, but it would have been more wonderful to miss it.