Herman Melville was as separated from a civilized literature as the lost Atlantis was said to have been from the great peoples of the earth.

We cannot live, suffer or die for somebody else, for suffering is too precious to be shared.

When one realizes that his life is worthless he either commits suicide or travels.

Nothing in our times has become so unattractive as virtue.

Recognize the cunning man not by the corpses he pays homage to but by the living writers he conspires against with the most shameful weapon, Silence, or the briefest review.

It takes a long time to understand nothing.

Writing is conscience, scruple, and the farming of our ancestors.

It is very perplexing how an intrepid frontier people, who fought a wilderness, floods, tornadoes, and the Rockies, cower before criticism, which is regarded as a malignant tumor in the imagination.

A strong foe is better than a weak friend.

Narcissus never wrote well nor was a friend.

There is a strange and mighty race of people called the Americans who are rapidly becoming the coldest in the world because of this cruel, man-eating idol, lucre.

Be determined to create the life you want.

For the best return on your money, pour your purse into your head.

When words are too heavy for the mouth, the soul weeps in agony

If you only knew all the love that I found, it's hard to keep my soul on the ground.

Creation is more than an accident of dead matter. It's a romance. It has purpose. It sings of the Living God. It bears his signature.

There was no way I could live in Hollywood and not become an actress.

I wonder the human race has been so fond of migrations, when the young take so hardly to traveling.

When you’re reminded that God owes you nothing you find yourself more grateful and less entitled.

I enjoyed reading all the classic authors like Isaac Asimov and Bradbury.