“The ability to hold two competing thoughts in one’s mind and still be able to function is the mark of a superior mind”

You’re a slave, a bound helpless slave to one thing in the world, your imagination.

She was feeling the pressure of the world outside and she wanted to see him and feel his presence beside her and be reassured that she was doing the right thing after all.

Intelligence is measured by a person’s ability to see validity within both sides of contradicting arguments.

That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you’re not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.

A woman should be able to kiss a man beautifully and romantically without any desire to be either his wife or his mistress.

No matter how low you go, there’s always an unexplored basement.

Before you criticize others, remember, they may not have had the same opportunities in life as you have had.

Experience is the name so many people give to their mistakes.

For what it’s worth, it’s never too late to be whoever you want to be.

I was within and without. Simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.

Life is so damned hard, so damned hard… It just hurts people and hurts people, until finally it hurts them so that they can’t be hurt ever any more. That’s the last and worst thing it does.

They slipped briskly into an intimacy from which they never recovered.

You are the loveliest thing that I have ever known.

Long ago, there was something in me, but now that thing is gone. Now that thing is gone, that thing is gone. I cannot cry. I cannot care. That thing will come back no more.

At eighteen our convictions are hills from which we look; at forty-five they are caves in which we hide.

That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you’re not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.

The ability to observe without evaluating is the highest form of intelligence.

The amount of money we receive will always be in direct ratio to the demand for what we do; our ability to do it; and the difficulty in replacing us.

Never has there been one possessed of complete sincerity who did not move others. Never has there been one who had not sincerity who was able to move others.

The ability to sell is the number one skill in business. If you cannot sell, don’t bother thinking about becoming a business owner.

The truth is that momentum, in the sense in which we are discussing, is a feeling, and if it’s a feeling, that means we have the ability to have it on our side at all times if we so choose.

Be grateful that the poor man is there, so that by making a gift to him you are able to help yourself.

Literature can train, and exercise, our ability to weep for those who are not us or ours.

Your ability to get along well with others will determine your happiness and success as much as any other factor.