The desire to believe the best of people is a prerequisite for intercourse with strangers; suspicion is reserved for friends.

In verity we are the poor. This humanity we would claim for ourselves is the legacy, not only of the Enlightenment, but of the thousands and thousands of European peasants and poor townspeople who came here bringing their humanity and their sufferings with them. It is the absence of a stable upper class that is responsible for much of the vulgarity of the American scene. Should we blush before the visitor for this deficiency?

The theater is the only branch of art much cared for by people of wealth; like canasta, it does away with the brother of talk after dinner.

As subjects, we all live in suspense, from day to day, from hour to hour; in other words, we are the hero of our own story. We cannot believe that it is finished, that we are 'finished,' even though we may say so; we expect another chapter, another installment, tomorrow or next week.

The comic element is the incorrigible element in every human being; the capacity to learn, from experience or instruction, is what is forbidden to all comic creations and to what is comic in you and me.

Be truthful... and pay attention. I would also recommend the avoidance of credit cards.

Scratch a socialist and you find a snob.