For an introvert his environment is himself and can never be subject to startling or unforeseen change.

The very purpose of existence is to reconcile the glowing opinion we hold of ourselves with the appalling things that other people think about us.

It is true that in America I've become a national hero, but really I was a hopeless case, that was all.

Other-cheekism is not only a way of purifying the soul, it is also part of every weak person's survival kit.

Rome did not create a great empire by having meetings, they did it by killing all those who opposed them. If at first you don't succeed, failure may be your style.

People say to me, "When did you come out?" But I was never in! When I was about six, I was swanning around the house in clothes that belonged to my mother and my grandmother which I'd found in an attic, saying, "I am a beautiful princess!" What my parents thought of this, I don't know. But they bore it. And the real problem was not my sin, but my unemployability.

To my disappointment I now realized that to know all is not to forgive all. It is to despise everybody.