“In the books I read the sinners are always more interesting than the saints, and in real life good people are dismally dull. I’ve no desire to be wicked, but I do want to be happy. A short life and a gay one for me and I’m willing to pay for my pleasure if it is necessary.”

The duty we owe ourselves is greater than that we owe others.

It takes three or four women to get each man into, through, and out of the world.

Let my name stand among those who are willing to bear ridicule and reproach for the truth’s sake, and so earn some right to rejoice when the victory is won.

I am not afraid of storms for I am learning how to sail my ship.

Money is the root of all evil, and yet it is such a useful root that we cannot get on without it any more than we can without potatoes.

Many argue; not many converse.

Love is a flower that grows in any soil, works its sweet miracles undaunted by autumn frost or winter snow, blooming fair and fragrant all the year, and blessing those who give and those who receive.

The power of finding beauty in the humblest things makes home happy and life lovely.

Some stories are so familiar its like going home.

It’s amazing how lovely common things become, if one only knows how to look at them.

Keep good company, read good books, love good things and cultivate soul and body as faithfully as you can.

Preserve your memories, keep them well, what you forget you can never retell.

I like adventures, and I’m going to find some.

Well, if I can’t be happy, I can be useful, perhaps.

Nothing provokes speculation more than the sight of a woman enjoying herself.

Salt is like good-humor, and nearly every thing is better for a pinch of it.

You want to remember that while you’re judging the book, the book is also judging you.

When you’re old enough to write a book for children, by then you’ll have become a grown up and have lost all your jokeyness. Unless you’re an undeveloped adult and still have an enormous amount of childishness in you.

If past history was all that is needed to play the game of money, the richest people would be librarians.

Books are a uniquely portable magic.

When I was a child I was a dreamer. I read comic books, and I was the hero of the comic book. I saw movies, and I was the hero in the movie. So every dream I have ever dreamed has come true a thousand times.

The trouble with writing a book about yourself is that you can’t fool around.

Make it a rule never to give a child a book you would not read yourself.

Read absolutely everything you get your hands on because you’ll never know where you’ll get an idea from.