He had fallen into the error of all liberals: the belief that men are prepared to reform themselves, that good will attracts good will, that truth has leavening virtue of its own.

None of us is guaranteed against failure or corruption of any kind; witness what's going on in the world in this moment, the follies of human nature and the failures of human nature.

In a longish life as a professional writer, I have heard a thousand masterpieces talked out over bars, restaurant tables and love seats. I have never seen one of them in print. Books must be written, not talked.

He had fallen into the error of all liberals: the belief that men are prepared to reform themselves, that good will attracts good will, that truth has leavening virtue of its own.

If you spend your whole life waiting for the storm, you'll never enjoy the sunshine.

There was no cure for the human condition because every man read the present and plotted the future in the light of his own past.

You know one of the causes of modern despair is the fact that we have had proposed to us, from various quarters, an impossible perfection.