To be human is erroneous.

The streets of Vienna are paved with culture, the streets of other cities with asphalt.

Someone who can write aphorisms should not fritter away his time in essays.

Corruption is worse than prostitution. The latter might endanger the morals of an individual, the former invariably endangers the morals of the entire country.

I had a terrible vision: I saw an encyclopedia walk up to a polymath and open him up.

The sound principle of a topsy-turvy lifestyle in the framework of an upside-down world order has stood every test.

An aphorism is never exactly true; it is either a half-truth or one-and-a-half truths.

A writer is someone who can make a riddle out of an answer.

Newspapers have roughly the same relationship to life as fortune-tellers to metaphysics.

Christianity has enriched the erotic meal with the appetizer of curiosity and spoiled it with the dessert of remorse.

The devil is an optimist if he thinks he can make people worse than they are.

My life's a tangle of past and present, like two separate puzzles with their pieces tumbled together. Nothing fits.

Countries, states, cities, corporations and laws are all words on paper.

Learn to see in another's calamity the ills which you should avoid.

To know what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty... this knowledge, this feeling is at the center of true religiousness.

I am now working on the second WWI story and find the challenge marvelous.

Save your tears, you've got years.

I can't imagine how Afghanistan's fall isn't going to be ten times faster than Iraq's.

I feel unbelievably fortunate. How many people get to do what they always wanted to do and do well with it and continue to be surprised and see amazing places and meet amazing people?

Me and normal have never really been on speaking terms.

You'll be a poorer person all your life if you don't know some of the great stories and great poems.