Conversation in its true meaning isn't all wagging the tongue; sometimes it is a deeply shared silence.

The little boy nodded at the peony and the peony seemed to nod back. The little boy was neat, clean and pretty. The peony was unchaste, dishevelled as peonies must be, and at the height of its beauty.(...) Every hour is filled with such moments, big with significance for someone.

The love that dare not speak its name has become the love that won't shut up.

The people of the United States, perhaps more than any other nation in history, love to abase themselves and proclaim their unworthiness, and seem to find refreshment in doing so... That is a dark frivolity, but still frivolity.

"Civilization rests on two things," said Hitzig; "the discovery that fermentation produces alcohol, and voluntary ability to inhibit defecation. And I put it to you, where would this splendidly civilized occasion be without both?"

In the end, it is upon the quality and commitment of individuals that all group movements depend.

It is a waste of time to dissipate one's moral zeal in disapproving of royal persons who have mistresses.