The most influential books, and the truest in their influence, are works of fiction. They repeat, they re-arrange, they clarify the lessons of life; they disengage us from ourselves, they constrain us to the acquaintance of others; and they show us the web of experience, but with a singular change-that monstrous, consuming ego of ours being, nonce, struck out.

By the time a man gets well into his seventies his continued existence is a mere miracle.

All sorts of allowances are made for the illusions of youth, and none, or almost none for the disenchantment of age.

After all, the commonplaces are the great poetic truths.

Don't ever confuse motion with progress.

Since hate poisons the soul, don't cherish enmities or grudges: avoid people who make you unhappy.

...those little people, my brownies, who do one half of my work for me while I am fast asleep, and in all human likelihood do the rest for me as well, when I am wide awake and fondly suppose I do for myself.