Excellence in any department can be attained only by the labor of a lifetime; it is not to be purchased at a lesser price.

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.

Isabelle had always simply reacted in her life. Someone left her behind

The redundancy of flesh, he thinks, the helplessness of meat, how can we conjure spirit from a bone?

What is forgotten, however, is that many times the Good we create leads to Evil that will destroy us.

Let us resolve to be happy regardless of our circumstance.

Poetry is a hazardous occupation, very hazardous. There may be bad things in there inside you that maybe you can't handle.

Those who go to Heaven ride on a pass and enter into blessings that they never earned, but all who go to hell pay their own way.

I have a kind of standard explanation why, which goes like this: Science fiction is one way of making sense out of a senseless world.

a work that intends to be art must first be entertaining.

No one goes through life thinking that theyre the best friend of the lead character.

The only sensible ends of literature are, first, the pleasurable toil of writing; second, the gratification of one's family and friends; and lastly, the solid cash.