Take hope from the heart of man, and you make him a beast of prey.

The longest absence is less perilous to love than the terrible trials of incessant proximity.

An easy-going husband is the one indispensable comfort of life.

Emulation is active virtue; envy is brooding malice.

Scandals are like dandelion seeds--they are arrow-headed, and stick where they fall, and bring forth and multiply fourfold.

Petty laws breed great crimes.

Intensely selfish people are always very decided as to what they wish. They do not waste their energies in considering the good of others.

Could we see when and where we are to meet again, we would be more tender when we bid our friends goodbye.

Music is not a science any more than poetry is. It is a sublime instinct, like genius of all kinds.

I do not wish to be a coward like the father of mankind and throw the blame upon a woman.

Familiarity is a magician that is cruel to beauty but kind to ugliness.

Engage in no pursuit in which you cannot look up unto God, and say, 'Bless me in this, my Father!

God has no tolerance for ignorance therefore we should not have tolerance for ignorance also.

Writing is a form of running away. Running away to a place you made with your own hand.

An organization has worth when its movement has a tangible goal

I woke at intervals until . . . the intervals of waking tipped the scales, and I was more often awake than not.

White. Like a clean piece of paper, like uncarved ivory, all is white when the story begins.

Writing is my vacation from living.

Money certainly brings out the best in you, doesn't it?

I did nothing but work. I made work my hobby. I was lucky that way.

I'm glad the universe is pointless. It means if I get to the end of my life, the universe can't turn to me and go, 'What have you been doing, you idiot? That's not the point!