Doing nothing, badly.

There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in.

My two fingers on a typewriter have never connected with my brain. My hand on a pen does. A fountain pen, of course. Ball-point pens are only good for filling out forms on a plane.

Hate is a lack of imagination.

Our worst enemies here are not the ignorant and simple, however cruel; our worst enemies are the intelligent and corrupt

Innocence always calls mutely for protection when we would be so much wiser to guard ourselves against it: innocence is like a dumb leper who has lost his bell, wandering the world, meaning no harm.

Innocence is like a dumb leper who has lost his bell, wandering the world, meaning no harm.

A story has no beginning or end: arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead.

A single feat of daring can alter the whole conception of what is possible.

Sweet are the thoughts that savor of content: the quiet mind is richer than a crown.

People who like quotes love meaningless generalizations

The years nineteen and twenty are a crucial stage in the maturation of character, and if you allow yourself to become warped when you're that age, it will cause you pain when you're older.

Sometimes the price of dreams is achieving them.

No man leaves where he is and seeks a distant place unless he is in some respect a failure.

It is lovely to meet an old person whose face is deeply lined, a face that has been deeply inhabited, to look in the eyes and find light there.

If a man carefully examines his thoughts he will be surprised to find how much he lives in the future. His well-being is always ahead.

You have to experience life, make observations, and ask questions.

Of great wealth there is no real use, except in its distribution, the rest is just conceit.

I write short stories. I write every day.

The best of merchandise will go back to the shelf unless handled by a conscientious, tactful salesman.

Failure is an event, it is not a person.