The average American may not know who his grandfather was. But the American was, however, one degree better off than the average Frenchman who, as a rule, was in considerable doubt as to who his father was.

At 50, a man can be an ass without being an optimist but not an optimist without being an ass

The test of any good fiction is that you should care something for the characters; the good to succeed, the bad to fail. The trouble with most fiction is that you want them all to land in hell, together, as quickly as possible.

And I urge upon you this - which I think is wisdom - if you find you can't make seventy by any but an uncomfortable road, don't you go.

A country without a patent office and good patent laws is just a crab, and can't travel any way but sideways and backways.

The old Irish when immersing a babe at baptism left out the right arm so that it would remain pagan for good fighting

I was dead for millions of years before I was born and it never inconvenienced me a bit.