Curious, how one remembered Christmas. Perhaps because other days might appeal to the head, but this one appealed to the heart.

The world doesn't come to the clever folks, it comes to the stubborn, obstinate, one-idea-at-a-time people.

Peace is not a passive but an active condition, not a negation but an affirmation.

People that trust themselves a dozen miles from the city, in strange houses, with servants they don't know, needn't be surprised if they wake up some morning and find their throats cut.

Love is like the measles, all the worse when it comes late.

having considerable mind, changing it became almost as ponderous an operation as moving a barn, although not nearly so stable.

I had a vision ... of being found on the pavement by some passerby, with a small punctuation mark ending my sentence of life.

Every crucial experience can be regarded either as a setback, or the start of a wonderful new adventure, it depends on your perspective!

when knowledge comes in at the door, fear and superstition fly out of the window.

The mystery story is two stories in one: the story of what happened and the story of what appeared to happen.

Conflict is the very essence of life.

as if it were a point of honor—which, indeed, a point of art often is.

Nowhere hidden has ever turned away a goodheart guest.

There is no gambling like politics.

Nature, you say, is totally inexplicable without a God. That is to say, to explain what you understand very little, you have need of a cause which you understand not at all.

You can't build a great building on a weak foundation.

Opposition brings concord. Out of discord comes the fairest harmony.

We can't slow up because of our love for democracy and our love for America. Someone should tell Faulkner that the vast majority of the people on this globe are colored.

When I was younger, I was always described as happy-go-lucky.

I am worth something and I will be big.

You may go a long time without winning, but you never forget that scent.