You know what the critics are. If you tell the truth they only say you're cynical and it does an author no good to get a reputation for cynicism.

There are men whose sense of humour is so ill developed that they still bear a grudge against Copernicus because he dethroned them from the central position in the universe. They feel it a personal affront that they can no longer consider themselves the pivot upon which turns the whole of created things.

It is astonishing how many books I find there is no need for me to read at all.

When some incident has shattered the career you’ve mapped out for yourself, a folly, a crime or a misfortune, you mustn’t think you’re down and out. It may be a stroke of luck, and when you look back years later you may say to yourself that you wouldn’t for anything in the world exchange the new life disaster has forced upon you for the dull, humdrum existence you would have led if circumstances hadn’t intervened.

The trouble is that thinking looks like loafing. Who wants to pay people for daydreaming?

It was such a lovely day I thought it a pity to get up.

Words have weight, sound and appearance; it is only by considering these that you can write a sentence that is good to look at and good to listen to.