A pessimist is somebody who complains about the noise when opportunity knocks.

The mind of the thoroughly well-informed man is a dreadful thing. It is like a bric-à-brac shop, all monsters and dust, with everything priced above its proper value.

When good Americans die they go to Paris.

I am sick to death of cleverness. Everybody is clever nowadays.

People fashion their God after their own understanding. They make their God first and worship him afterwards.

I wanted to eat of the fruit of all the trees in the garden of the world… And so, indeed, I went out, and so I lived. My only mistake was that I confined myself so exclusively to the trees of what seemed to me the sun-lit side of the garden, and shunned the other side for its shadow and its gloom.

The basis of optimism is sheer terror.