Many a promising career has been wrecked by marrying the wrong sort of woman.

Nobody who looks as though he enjoyed life is ever called distinguished, though he is a man in a million.

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

Too much traffic with a quotation book begets a conviction of ignorance in a sensitive reader. Not only is there a mass of quotable stuff he never quotes, but an even vaster realm of which he has never heard.

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

I was afraid and did not know what I feared, which is the worst kind of fear.

Real bibliophiles do not put their books on shelves for people to look at or handle. They have no desire to show off their darlings, or to amaze people with their possessions. They keep their prized books hidden away in a secret spot to which they resort stealthily, like a Caliph visiting his harem, or a church elder sneaking into a bar. To be a book collector is to combine the worst characteristics of a dope-fiend with those of a miser.