People with bad consciences always fear the judgment of children.

Venice, as a city, was a foundling, floating upon the waters like Moses in his basket among the bulrushes.

it's easier to forgive your enemies than to forgive your friends.

What's the use of falling in love if you both remain inertly as you were?

The Crucifixion and other historical precedents notwithstanding, many of us still believe that outstanding goodness is a kind of armor, that virtue, seen plain and bare, gives pause to criminality. But perhaps it is the other way around.

Anybody who has ever tried to rectify an injustice or set a record straight comes to feel that he is going mad.

A society person who is enthusiastic about modern painting or Truman Capote is already half a traitor to his class. It is middle-class people who, quite mistakenly, imagine that a lively pursuit of the latest in reading and painting will advance their status in the world.