Idiocy is the female defect ... It is no worse than the male defect, which is lunacy.

We think in youth that our bodies are identical to ourselves and have the same interests, but discover later in life that they are heartless companions who have been accidentally yoked with us, and who are as likely as not, in our extreme sickness or old age, to treat us with less mercy than we would have received at the hands of the worst bandits.

Like all bad drivers, he [Henry Andrews] thought he was the best driver in the world...

I cannot think that espionage can be recommended as a technique for building an impressive civilization. It's a lout's game.

Music is part of human life and partakes of the human tragedy. There is much more music in the world than is allowed to change into heard sounds and prove its point.

A bad short story or novel or poem leaves one comparatively calm because it does not exist, unless it gets a fake prestige throughbeing mistaken for good work. It is essentially negative, it is something that has not come through. But over bad criticism one has a sense of real calamity.

Art and propaganda have this much connection, that if a propaganda makes art impossible, it is clearly damned.