The mere fact that a very large number of people believe such a thing and that the world would be a better place if it were true, is no reason for believing that it is true.

Anyone can be a barbarian; it requires a terrible effort to remain a civilized man.

The grinding of the intellect is for most people as painful as a dentists drill.

There is nothing to which men cling more tenaciously than the privileges of class.

Leonard Woolf in a letter to Lytton Strachey said he hated John Maynard Keynes "for his crass stupidity and hideous face".

You can't love by desiring an extremely vague desire of a very vague moon.

At the best and even unexpurgated, diaries give a distorted or one-sided portrait of the writer.

There are no good or bad people in this world

Your value is in your individuality.

Some day, we will know the value of suffering, but then we will no longer be able to suffer.

A cheap and easy cynicism rails at everything. The master of the art accomplishes the formidable task of discrimination.

One needs the invented, the spontaneous, the impromptu for ritual. Skepticism, that grain of salt, is inappropriate.

I rewrote the ending of 'Farewell to Arms' 39 times before I was satisfied.

Commencement addresses are usually garbage. They're for colleges seeking publicity.

All I know is that I have two choices – stay wrapped in blankets and get on with dying, or get the list back together and get on with living.

For me, when I watch something without music, I'm instantly thinking, "Okay, what am I going to do here? How am I going to convey this?" I take notes and really think about that.

The basic fundamental of behaviour should be to give.