It is very necessary to have markers of beauty left in a world seemingly bent on making the most evil ugliness.

true influence over another comes not from a moments eloquence nor from any happily chosen word, but from the accumulation of a lifetime's thoughts stored up in the eyes...the secret smile in the eyes of a friend

I was an old man when I was 12; and now I am an old man, AND IT'S SPLENDID!

How do you know what the world is like? Do you know the world is a foul sty? Do you know if you rip the fronts off houses you'd find swine? The world's a hell. What does it matter what happens in it?

Art is not only the desire to tell one's secret; it is the desire to tell it and hide it at the same time.

Good-by, Good-by, world. Good-by, Grover's Corners... Mama and Papa. Good-by to clocks ticking... and Mama's sunflowers. And food and coffee. And new-ironed dresses and hot baths...and sleeping and waking up. Oh, earth, you're too wonderful for anybody to realize you.

But there comes a time in everybody's life when he must decide whether he'll live among human beings or nota fool among fools or a fool alone.