The writer can only explore the inner space of his characters by perceptively navigating his own.

This human nature is shabby stuff, as you may know from introspection.

Let us hope, I prayed, that a kind Providence will put a speedy end to the acts of God under which we have been laboring.

We pay for security with boredom, for adventure with bother.

I made a tentative conclusion. It seemed from all of this that uppermost among human joys is the negative one of restoration: not going to the stars, but learning that one may stay where one is.

If there's anything I hate it's the word humorist-I feel like countering with the word seriousist.

Rather than waste precious time arguing, I went up and started serving my "sentence" without delay. It was usually about an hour for epigrams; somewhat longer for a paradox.