"You don't believe in God," I said to Stein. "God is a word banging around in the human nervous system. He exists about as much as Santa Claus." "Santa Claus has had a tremendous influence, exist or not." "For children." "Lots of saints have died for God with a courage that's hardly childish." "That's part of the horror. It's all a fantasy. It's all for nothing."

... it is a fact universally acknowledged that a husband is the most ridiculous thing on earth, except for a bachelor.

Before the mind snaps, or the heart breaks, it gather itself like a clock about to strike. It might even be said one pulls himself together to disintegrate.

The value of marriage is not that adults produce children but that children produce adults.

The bonds of matrimony are like any other bonds - they mature slowly.

Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.

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.