Tragedy can break the heart but not the dam of the tearducts while schmaltz can dissolve the most hardened sophisticate.

Women keep a special corner of their hearts for sins they have never committed.

Women's virtue is man's greatest invention.

We all have our little illusions about our own mental abilities.

mosquitoes were using my ankles as filling stations.

There are compensations for growing older. One is the realization that to be sporting isn't at all necessary. It is a great relief to reach this stage of wisdom.

The reason for the scaffolding on the tower of Saint Germain-des-Près is that a rich American has purchased it and is having it crated for shipping.

Emily and I have now reached the time in life when not only do we lie about our ages, we forget what we've said they are.

... I have always fallen for ads. The sweetheart of J. Walter Thompson, I have a peasant-like belief in whatever miracle they profess to effect.

That amenity which the French have developed into a great art . . . conversation.

Courtesy is fine and heaven knows we need more and more of it in a rude and frenetic world, but mechanized courtesy is as pallid as Pablum ... in fact, it isn't even courtesy.

Even when poetry has a meaning, as it usually has, it may be inadvisable to draw it out... Perfect understanding will sometimes almost extinguish pleasure.

The Left has always sought single, non-values-based explanations for human behavior.

Without form, the sensitiveness vanishes.

When I'm alone at home, I really prefer to listen to Wagner's orchestral music rather than any vocal music. I find it illuminating not to have to pay attention to voices in the recordings.

But now we've finally taken full possession of what is rightfully ours, because everyone must feel their own pain--and as awful as that is, it's also wonderful.

The worst thing you can do is invest in companies you know nothing about. Unfortunately, buying stocks on ignorance is still a popular American pastime.

I am suspicious of what people might want from me. Do they like me, or my money?

Before becoming a Muslim, a Hindu, a Sikh or a Christian, let's become a Human first.

In Italy they take cheap cloth and make it look expensive, but I take expensive cloth and make it look cheap. They just don't understand.

You can tell a lot just by looking at it.