Americans were people who wanted to leave every place better than they found it, to leave every man more of a man than they found him. ... Americans could open doors to almost all that was admirable - it was their misfortune, not their fault, that movies and victrolas and advertisements squeezed in when they opened the door.

a committee, of course, exists for the purpose of damping enthusiasms.

Twenty-three is said to be the prime of life by those who have reached so far and no farther. It shares this distinction with every age, from ten to three-score and ten.

Americans were people who wanted to leave every place better than they found it, to leave every man more of a man than they found him. ... Americans could open doors to almost all that was admirable - it was their misfortune, not their fault, that movies and victrolas and advertisements squeezed in when they opened the door.

Los Angeles is a sophisticated city; it has no eccentricities and no heart.

The moment of cocoa-drinking was always the moment of confidences.

Unpopularity is a excellent salve to the conscience; it is delicious to be misunderstood.