For what I have received may the Lord make me truly thankful. And more truly for what I have not received.

Writers sometimes talk as though they were the only friends of civilization. This is their conceit. But they have special powers to serve -- or to corrupt -- civilization, and are obliged to use them.

Truth is the only good and the purest pity. ... Men lie for profit or for pity. All lies turn to poison, but a lie that is told for pity or shame breeds such a host of ills that no power on earth can compass their redemption.

There is as much vanity in self-scourgings as in self-justification.

Great advertising is the expression of deep emotional sincerity.

Critics have been amusing themselves for a long time by auscultating fiction for signs of heart failure.

War, for any cause, is inexcusable. There is nothing which excuses us for the beastly ingenuity of our wars. Only fools, only the diseased, think that we are served by killing the strong young men with machines.