Man is diminished if he lives without knowledge of his past; without hope of a future he becomes a beast.

What a child doesn't receive he can seldom later give.

Children live in occupied territory. The brave and the foolhardy openly rebel against authority, whether harsh or benign. But most tread warily, outwardly accommodating themselves to alien mores and edicts while living in secret their iconoclastic and subversive lives.

The secret of contentment is never to allow yourself to want anything which reason tells you you haven't a chance of getting.

No literary form is more revealing, more spontaneous or more individual than a letter.

Charm is often despised but I can never see why. No one has it who isn't capable of genuinely liking others, at least at the actual moment of meeting and speaking. Charm is always genuine; it may be superficial but it isn't false.

All these problems [deciding cases] are easier for people who believe in God. Those of us who don't or can't have to do the best we can. That's what the law is, the best we can do. Human justice is imperfect, but it's the only justice we have.