..to write and to live are very different. Many who praise virtue, do no more than praise it.

Cucumber should be well sliced, dressed with pepper and vinegar, and then thrown out.

The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.

Curiosity is one of the most permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect.

Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not.

When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.

Classical quotation is the parole of literary men all over the world.

A man who uses a great many words to express his meaning is like a bad marksman who, instead of aiming a single stone at an object, takes up a handful and throws at it in hopes he may hit.

There are minds so impatient of inferiority that their gratitude is a species of revenge, and they return benefits, not because recompense is a pleasure, but because obligation is a pain.

When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.

He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will waste his life in fruitless efforts.

The rich can afford to be progressive. Poor people have reason to be afraid of the future.

One single sentence, one frame of film, and abracadabra! the story’s wings would take her to another lost world, another magic realm that was ready to be explored.

New York - that unnatural city where every one is an exile, none more so than the American

I think it's weird that people think someone who's not a politician could be the mayor of Chicago.

When people don't have any curiosity about themselves, that is always a bad sign.

I saw myself the lambent easy light Gild the brown horror, and dispel the night.

The existence of God is the ultimate paradox.

It's hard to escape when your hobby is your job.

Doubtless there are other roads.

Every one of us is shadowed by an illusory person: a false Self. We are not very good at recognizing illusions, least of all the ones we cherish about ourselves.