Metaphysical speculation is about as pointless as a discussion on the meaning of one's lungs. They're for breathing.

I learned early and at that kitchen table that there are ways of avoiding, without guilt, the commitments of love.

There is no point in regretting any part of the past. The past can't now be altered, the future has yet to be lived, and consciously to experience every moment of the present is the only way to gain at least the illusion of immortality.

There are few couples as unhappy as those who are too proud to admit their unhappiness.

Wars may be fought by decent men, but they're not won by them.

Books of quotations ... afford me one of the most undemanding but satisfying forms of reading pleasure.

Of the four billion life forms which have existed on this planet, three billion, nine hundred and sixty million are now extinct. We don't know why. Some by wanton extinction, some through natural catastrophe, some destroyed by meteorites and asteroids. In the light of these mass extinctions it really does seem unreasonable to suppose that Homo sapiens should be exempt. Our species will have been one of the shortest-lived of all, a mere blink, you may say, in the eye of time.