But Philip was impatient with himself; he called to mind his idea of the pattern of life: the unhappiness he had suffered was no more than part of a decoration which was elaborate and beautiful; he told himself strenuously that he must accept with gaiety everything, dreariness and excitement, pleasure and pain, because it added to the richness of the design.

There is only one thing about which I am certain, and this is that there is very little about which one can be certain

Genius is talent provided with ideals. Genius starves while talent wears purple and fine linen. The man of genius of today will infifty years' time be in most cases no more than a man of talent.

The rain fell alike upon the just and upon the unjust, and for nothing was there a why and a wherefore.

It is a nuisance that knowledge can only be acquired by hard work.

You know, the Philistines have long since discarded the rack and stake as a means of suppressing the opinions they feared: they've discovered a much more deadly weapon of destruction -- the wisecrack.

A novelist must preserve a childlike belief in the importance of things which common sense considers of no great consequence.