Losing innocence. Remembering Heaven. That was the essence of Hell

Be yourself. Above all, let who you are, what you are, what you believe shine through every sentence you write, every piece you finish.

The first treasure California began to surrender after the Gold Rush as the oldest: her land.

We are all dying of life.

Spend as much time as you can with your mouth shut and your eyes and ears open.

Be persistent. Editors change; tastes change; editorial markets change. Too many beginning writers give up too easily.

Guilty she might be. But what human being was not? There were things in her past she needn't be ashamed of, things to be proud of; she wouldn't surrender so meekly to a condemning judgment.

No writer should minimize the factor that affects everyone, but is beyond control: luck.

The best that could be left behind by any man: children who had been brought up to behave responsibly and to believe in something beyond their own self gratification. (The Americans

Human beings may be inconsistent, but human nature is true to itself

He could never be anything more than what he was: the inheritor of weakness and unbridled emotion, a creature possessed by the past, and carrying its curse forever into the future--

I felt, as I have often felt, that my failing the truth could have no bearing at all on the Truth itself, which could never conceivably be in any sense dependent on me or on anyone.

Satan will thrash about in one last burst of evil, hoping to capture as many souls as possible before his inevitable end.

An educated man is thoroughly inoculated against humbug, thinks for himself and tries to give his thoughts, in speech or on paper, some style.

Induction for deduction, with a view to construction.

It is because we underrate thought, because we do not see what a great element it is in religious life, that there is so little of practical and consistent religion among us.

I noticed every time I spent a lot of time in the bathtub, I would just get fantastic realizations about myself, and they were so valuable and liberating.

Love cannot be seeded into someone. It is a fire that is difficult to kindle but once it takes on, it is equally difficult to extinguish.

I'm frank, brutally frank. And even when I'm not frank, I look frank.

French are what they are without excusing themselves to be.

What is important is that we have the ability to create.