Books are good enough in their own way, but they are a poor substitute for life.

Benjamin Franklin went through life an altered man because he once paid too dearly for a penny whistle. My concern springs usually from a deeper source, to wit, from having bought a whistle when I did not want one.

I learned to recognise the thorough and primitive duality of man; I saw that, of the two natures that contended in the field of my consciousness, even if I could rightly be said to be either, it was only because I was radically both.

To have suffered ... sets a keen edge on what remains of the agreeable. This is a great truth and has to be learned in the fire.

My idea of man's chief end was to enrich the world with things of beauty, and have a fairly good time myself while doing so.

Doubtless the world is quite right in a million ways; but you have to be kicked about a little to convince you of the fact.

They say cowardice is infectious; but then argument is, on the other hand, a great emboldener.