Every cold empirick, when his heart is expanded by a successful experiment, swells into a theorist.

Cucumber should be well sliced, dressed with pepper and vinegar, and then thrown out.

The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.

Curiosity is one of the most permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect.

Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not.

When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.

Classical quotation is the parole of literary men all over the world.

A man who uses a great many words to express his meaning is like a bad marksman who, instead of aiming a single stone at an object, takes up a handful and throws at it in hopes he may hit.

There are minds so impatient of inferiority that their gratitude is a species of revenge, and they return benefits, not because recompense is a pleasure, but because obligation is a pain.

When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.

He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will waste his life in fruitless efforts.

If he could just have one more chance, he'd act like the man he'd always believed himself to be.

I love '70s organic architecture. I am very influenced by the time when I grew up.

Greek is doubtless the most perfect [language] that has been contrived by the art of man.

Hell hath no fury like a hustler with a literary agent.

Good poetry seems so simple and natural a thing that when we meet it we wonder that all men are not always poets. Poetry is nothing but healthy speech.

I don't suppose there's really any critic except posterity.

My music is going to be true. I'm not out to sell records. I'm experiencing something, and it's what I feel.

On the road to truth, only those who do not know what tiredness and fear means reach the truth!

My thinking is very flexible, and I hope that it will remain flexible and creative as long as biology permits me to think and that I will remain a rebel all my life.

That's all that really matters in the end. Stories.