A good story is obviously a difficult thing to invent, but its difficulty is a poor reason for despising it.

D'you call life a bad job? Never! We've had our ups and downs, we've had our struggles, we've always been poor, but it's been worth it, ay, worth it a hundred times I say when I look round at my children.

Of all the hokum with which this country [America] is riddled, the most odd is the common notion that it is free of class distinctions.

There are times when I look over the various parts of my character with perplexity. I recognize that I am made up of several persons and that the person that at the moment has the upper hand will inevitably give place to another. But which is the real one? All of them or none?

Like all weak men he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one's mind.

Has it occurred to you that transmigration is at once an explanation and a justification of the evil of the world? If the evils we suffer are the result of sins committed in our past lives, we can bear them with resignation and hope that if in this one we strive toward virtue out future lives will be less afflicted.

Simplicity and naturalness are the truest marks of distinction.