gossip ... was like any other commodity in the marketplace. You received it only if you had something of value to give.

If from infancy you treat children as gods, they are liable in adulthood to act as devils.

Old age makes caricatures of us all.

We can experience nothing but the present moment, live in no other second of time, and to understand this is as close as we can get to eternal life.

the unforgivable was usually the most easily forgiven.

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

Death ... obliterates family resemblance as it does personality: there is no affinity between the living and the dead.