Being broke is not a disgrace, it is only a catastrophe.

As between the intolerable and the merely distasteful, I must choose the latter.

The fricassee with dumplings is made by a Mrs. Miller whose husband has left her four times on account of her disposition and returned four times on account of her cooking.

Everything in a story should be credible.

I understand the technique of eccentricity; it would be futile for a man to labor at establishing a reputation for oddity if he were ready at the slightest provocation to revert to normal action.

What do I believe in? Belief means faith, and there's only one damned thing in the world I have any faith in. That's the idea of American democracy, because it seems to me so obvious that that's the only sensible way to run human affairs.

It is always wiser, where there is a choice, to trust inertia. It is the greatest force in the world.