Travel is the most private of pleasures. There is no greater bore than the travel bore. We do not in the least want to hear what he has seen in Hong-Kong.

The wise traveler is he who is perpetually surprised.

It is dreadful how I miss you, and everything that everybody says seems flat and stupid.

Not seeing is half-believing.

A flowerless room is a soulless room, to my way of thinking; but even a solitary little vase of a living flower may redeem it.

however many resolutions one makes, one's pen, like water, always finds its own level, and one can't write in any way other than one's own.

The public, as a whole, finds reassurance in longevity, and, after the necessary interlude of reaction, is disposed to recognize extreme old age as a sign of excellence. The long-liver has triumphed over at least one of man's initial handicaps: the brevity of life.