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

There is no object to life. To nature nothing matters but the continuation of the species.

For men and women are not only themselves; they are also the region in which they are born, the city apartment or farm in which they learnt to walk, the games they played as children, the old wives tales they overheard, the food they ate, the schools they attended, the sports they followed, the poets they read, and the God they believed in. It is all these things that have made them what they are, and these are the things that you can't come to know by hearsay.

I could have forgiven it if he'd fallen desperately in love with someone and gone off with her. I should have thought that natural. I shouldn't really have blamed him. I should have thought he was led away. Men are so weak, and women are so unscrupulous.

I'd sooner be smashed into a mangled pulp by a bus when we cross the street than look forward to a life like yours.

People who ask for your criticism want only praise.

Life is really very fantastic, and one has to have a peculiar sense of humour to see the fun of it. [Virtue]