In civilized communities men's idiosyncrasies are mitigated by the necessity of conforming to certain rules of behavior. Culture is a mask that hides their faces.

When you are young you take the kindness people show you as your right.

There's nothing the world loves more than a ready-made description which they can hang on to a man, and so save themselves all trouble in future.

It is bad enough to know the past; it would be intolerable to know the future.

In heaven, when the blessed use the telephone they will say what they have to say and not a word besides.

The great critic … must be a philosopher, for from philosophy he will learn serenity, impartiality, and the transitoriness of human things.

There was an immeasurable distance between the quick and the dead: they did not seem to belong to the same species; and it was strange to think that but a little while before they had spoken and moved and eaten and laughed.