An idealist believes the short run doesn't count. A cynic believes the long run doesn't matter. A realist believes that what is done or left undone in the short run determines the long run.

Take away grievances from some people and you remove their reasons for living; most of us are nourished by hope, but a considerable minority get psychic nutrition from their resentments, and would waste away purposelessly without them.

Filth is always a sign of weakness - in the mouth of the user and in the mind of the writer.

History repeats itself, but in such cunning disguise that we never detect the resemblance until the damage is done.

Norbert Blei is a writer the way people used to be troubadours and minstrels, celebrating what he has seen and heart and felt in a deceptively simple style reminiscent of the early Sherwood Anderson. . . . Like Anderson, he is a lover, and his affection invests his writing with a singular charm.

A cynic is not merely one who reads bitter lessons from the past, his is also one who is permanently disappointed in the future.

Intolerance is the most socially acceptable form of egotism, for it permits us to assume superiority without personal boasting.