“It is with nations as it is with individuals. A book of history is a book of sermons.”

There are times, young fellah, when every one of us must make a stand for human right and justice, or you never feel clean again.

Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent instantly recognizes genius.

You see, but you do not observe.

It is stupidity rather than courage to refuse to recognize danger when it is close upon you.

To let the brain work without sufficient material is like racing an engine. It racks itself to pieces.

Life, it turns out, is infinitely more clever and adaptable than anyone had ever supposed.

We can’t command our love, but we can our actions.

I have frequently gained my first real insight into the character of parents by studying their children.

The game is afoot.

Women are naturally secretive, and they like to do their own secreting.

There are heroisms all round us waiting to be done.

Art in the blood is liable to take the strangest forms.

There is nothing in which deduction is so necessary as in religion.

Anything is better than stagnation.

Any truth is better than indefinite doubt.

Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing. It may seem to point very straight to one thing, but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something entirely different.

We would be together and have our books and at night be warm in bed together with the windows open and the stars bright.

You can write a book on how to ruin someone’s perfect day.

People don’t realize how a man’s whole life can be changed by one book.

An autobiography is a book a person writes about his own life and it is usually full of all sorts of boring details.

I know many books which have bored their readers, but I know of none which has done real evil.

There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.

Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read.

I often wonder what I’d do if there weren’t any books in the world.