To say that a man is a reasoning animal is a very different thing than to say that most of man's decisions are based on his rational process. That I don't believe at all.

[A] pessimist gets nothing but pleasant surprises, an optimist nothing but unpleasant.

The only thing I want is something I can't have; and that is to know if, 100 years from now, people will still buy my books.

I have a strong moral sense - by my standards.

Nothing is more admirable than the fortitude with which millionaires tolerate the disadvantages of their wealth.

Measure your minds height by the shadow it casts.

Being broke is not a disgrace, it is only a catastrophe.

Every Sherlock Holmes story has at least one marvelous scene.

Sarcasm is not the rapier of wit its wielders seem to believe it to be, but merely a club: it may, by dint of brute force, occasionally raise bruises, but it never cuts or pierces.

The more you put in your brain, the more it will hold - if you have one.

I don't approve of open fires. You can't think, or talk or even make love in front of a fireplace. All you can do is stare at it.

...each person is required to ask, 'what is my authority?' - on what do you base your decisions? if it's yourself, then you are without excuse...

They had a big court battle over who got to keep me. Mom won; she made me live with Dad.

It may be observed, that very polished languages, and such as are praised for their superior clearness and perspicuity, are generally deficient in strength.

Beware the writer who always encloses the word *reality* in quotation marks: He's trying to slip something over on you. Or into you.

My first job as a kid was going from door to door selling Christmas cards, to raise money for my grandmother's hip replacement. Because, you know... You break it, you buy it.

Pop culture has none of the vibrancy that you find in the folk culture, where people speak directly to their own experience in the human condition.

My good mood felt like an endangered species.

I don't mind a little blood on the ice when it's a hockey rink, but I hate seeing blood on the ice when it's from baby seals.

My own field, the prevention of genetic disorders in babies, has been possible only because of humane work on animals.

How can a president not be an actor?