And then he sank back and tried, as usual, not to think. He must succeed. That's what the world was made for. That's what he was made for. That was what he would have to do.

Assure a man that he has a soul and then frighten him with old wives' tales as to what is to become of him afterward, and you have hooked a fish, a mental slave.

I believe in the compelling power of love. I do not understand it. I believe it to be the most fragrant blossom of all this thorny existence.

Life is a God-damned, stinking, treacherous game and nine hundred and ninety-nine men out of a thousand are bastards.

How true it is that words are but the vague shadows of the volumes we mean.

Let no one underestimate the need of pity. We live in a stony universe whose hard, brilliant forces rage fiercely.

In order to have wisdom we must have ignorance.

Life is made for the strong. There is no mercy in it for the weak– none...Such is the tragedy of desire.

Love is the only thing you can really give in all this world. When you give love, you give everything.

Art is the stored honey of the human soul, gathered on wings of misery and travail.

Our civilization is still in a middle stage, scarcely beast, in that it is no longer wholly guided by instinct; scarcely human, in that it is not yet wholly guided by reason.

There was, I found, always more to learn.

If you didn't understand the need for friendship or love, could you be lonely?

My first word for the New Year was 'exsanguinate.' This was probably not a good omen.

Beauty is created by fellow human beings, and enhanced because they are in relationship with each other.

That's really all I want, to be able to change the world with my voice.

There is only one evil, one crime, one sin: lack of heart.

When someone leaves an office, often there's a series of successors until you settle on one.

There are things I believe in to a certain extent, as much as a scientist would. And I like, through the means of entertainment, to explore those ideas.

I don't care if a reader hates one of my stories, just as long as he finishes the book.

What a man does defiles him, not what is done by others.