A pipe for the hour of work; a cigarette for the hour of conception; a cigar for the hour of vacuity.

Time is money says the proverb, but turn it around and you get a precious truth. Money is time.

For the man sound of body and serene of mind there is no such thing as bad weather; every day has its beauty, and storms which whip the blood do but make it pulse more vigorously.

That is one of the bitter curses of poverty; it leaves no right to be generous.

For one thing, I know every book of mine by its scent.

I hate with a bitter hatred the names of lentils haricots - those pretentious cheats of the appetite, those tabulated humbugs, those certified aridites calling themselves human food!

The mind which renounces, once and for ever, a futile hope, has its compensation in ever-growing calm.

Life is a huge farce, and the advantage of possessing a sense of humour is that it enables one to defy fate with mocking laughter.

I know every book of mine by its smell, and I have but to put my nose between the pages to be reminded of all sorts of things.

Money is made at Christmas out of holly and mistletoe, but who save the vendors would greatly care if no green branch were procurable?

Parks are but pavement disguised with a growth of grass.

Do whatever you must do to protect your children and wife.

Certainly the details of our life are unique. Spending time thinking of how I am different from someone else, however, does not tend to be very productive.

My notion of a great novel is something like a five-hundred-page shaggy-dog story, with only the punch line omitted.

It all seemed a hollow sham now - that strict code, that conscientious virtue that condemned her to the sterile joys of pious women! No, no, she'd had enough of that; she wanted to live!

It would have been sad for me to spend my life just trying to superimpose stuff on people rather than trying to encourage them to look within themselves for what's of value.

The idea is to go from numbers to information to understanding.

I've always been aware of having feelings that were pretty intense at times. I imagine most people have had that, or they wouldn't be human.

It takes just as little time to see the positive side of life as it does the negative side.

Art is the response of the living to life. It is therefore the record left behind by civilization.

It is the inner life that is to spark the change in consciousness that will permit us to advance