No action is in itself good or bad, but only such according to convention.

I don't know why it is that the religious never ascribe common sense to God.

[Money] is the string with which a sardonic destiny directs the motions of its puppets.

It has been said that metaphysics is the finding of bad reasons for what we believe upon instinct.

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

The spirit is often most free when the body is satiated with pleasure; indeed, sometimes the stars shine more brightly seen from the gutter than from the hilltop.

Art, if it is to be reckoned as one of the great values of life, must teach man humility, tolerance, wisdom and magnanimity. The value of art is not beauty, but right action.