The dead don't stay interested in us living people for very long. Gradually, gradually, they let go hold of the earth . . . and the ambitions they had . . . and the things they suffered . . . and the people they loved. They get weaned away from the earth - that's the way I put it - weaned away.

The best part of married life is the fights. The rest is merely so-so.

I've never forgotten for long at a time that living is struggle. I know that every good and excellent thing in the world stands moment by moment on the razor-edge of danger and must be fought for - whether it's a field, or a home, or a country.

Pride, avarice, and envy are in every home.

Nature reserves the right to inflict upon her children the most terrifying jests.

The stuff of which masterpieces are made drifts about the world waiting to be clothed in words.

Hope, like faith, is nothing if it is not courageous; it is nothing if it is not ridiculous.