Without adventure civilization is in full decay.

No one who achieves success does so without acknowledging the help of others. The wise and confident acknowledge this help with gratitude.

The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order.

If a dog jumps into your lap, it is because he is fond of you; but if a cat does the same thing, it is because your lap is warmer.

There are no whole truths: All truths are half-truths.

Not ignorance, but ignorance of ignorance, is the death of knowledge.

Religion is the last refuge of human savagery.

Philosophy begins in wonder. And, at the end, when philosophic thought has done its best, the wonder remains.

...the self-satisfied dogmatism with which mankind at each period of its history cherishes the delusion of the finality of existing modes of knowledge.

Knowledge shrinks as wisdom grows.

Symbolism is no mere idle fancy or corrupt degeneration: it is inherent in the very texture of human life.

Avoid selling to dumb customers, there aren't enough left!

Helplessness is unquestionably the first and the surest indication of a praying heart. ... Prayer and helplessness are inseparable. Only he who is helpless can truly pray.

Great necessities call out great virtues.

Three things are certain: Death, taxes, and lost data. Guess which has occurred.

Nobody is healthy in London, nobody can be.

Big breaks come from small fractures.

When I did have a little bit of commercial success, it really didn't suit my temperament at all. I'm a terrible public person.

The little birds have God for their caterer.

What I'm trying to do is be as honest as I can, and I don't normally do that.

I suddenly feel a vague pity for all those writers who have to ply their trade from sleepy American suburbs, writing divorce scenes symbolized by the very slow washing of dishes.