There is no greater mistake in life than seeing things or hearing them at the wrong time.

A mother's love for her child is like nothing else in the world. It knows no law, no pity, it dares all things and crushes down remorselessly all that stands in its path.

An archaeologist is the best husband a woman can have. The older she gets the more interested he is in her.

I don't think necessity is the mother of invention. Invention, in my opinion, arises directly from idleness, possibly also from laziness - to save oneself trouble.

It is ridiculous to set a detective story in New York City. New York City is itself a detective story.

Very few of us are what we seem.

Dogs are wise. They crawl away into a quiet corner and lick their wounds and do not rejoin the world until they are whole once more.

Nobody knows what another person is thinking. They may imagine they do, but they are nearly always wrong.

Fear is incomplete knowledge.

Books are a habit-forming drug.

I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.

If we seem to get no good by attempting to draw near to Him, we may be sure we will get none by keeping away from Him.

The price of greatness is exorbitant

A wicked man in prayer may lift up his hands but he cannot lift up his face.

I would love to see a march on Washington that says 'Save our Social Security'

It's easier to make an album, harder to figure out how to get people to notice it.

You can change an outfit, you can outfit change, or both.

Crimes are not to be measured by the issue of events, but by the bad intentions of men.

All battles have some use, including those in which we were defeated.

[A certain class of explanations in science are] analgesics that dull the ache of incomprehension without removing the cause.

I don't know what to say about literary critics. I think it's probably best to say nothing.