“The mark of a good action is that it appears inevitable in retrospect.”

There is only one difference between a long life and a good dinner: that, in the dinner, the sweets come last.

The world is so full of a number of things, I’m sure we should all be as happy as kings.

We all know what Parliament is, and we are all ashamed of it.

Once you are married, there is nothing left for you, not even suicide.

Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm.

You can forgive people who do not follow you through a philosophical disquisition.

When a torrent sweeps a man against a boulder, you must expect him to scream, and you need not be surprised if the scream is sometimes a theory.

There is a fellowship more quiet even than solitude, and which, rightly understood, is solitude made perfect.

There is no progress whatever. Everything is just the same as it was thousands, and tens of thousands, of years ago. The outward form changes. The essence does not change.

The world is full of a number of things, I’m sure we should all be as happy as kings.

All human beings are commingled out of good and evil.

Politics is perhaps the only profession for which no preparation is thought necessary.

We are all travelers in the wilderness of this world, and the best we can find in our travels is an honest friend.

Nothing like a little judicious levity.

Each has his own tree of ancestors, but at the top of all sits Probably Arboreal.

So long as we love, we serve; so long as we are loved by others.

Do not doubt that mountains walk simply because they may not appear to walk like humans.

From the absolute will of an entire people there is no appeal, no redemption, no refuge but treason.

Later, I even appeared in a Rock Opera with Richard Gere.

To me, beauty appears when one feels deeply, and art is an act of total attention.

Photography today appears to be in a state of flight… The familiar is made strange, the unfamiliar grotesque. The amateur forces his Sundays into a series of unnatural poses.

One day puss did not take his place punctually, but presently appeared with two mice, one of which it placed on its master’s plate, the other on its own.

You know Mildred would never do anything wrong or foolish. I reflected a little sadly that this was only too true and hoped I did not appear too much that kind of person to others. Virtue is an excellent thing and we should all strive after it, but it can sometimes be a little depressing.

The minority can seldom resist. But from the absolute will of an entire people there is no appeal, no redemption, no refuge but treason.