When friends stop being frank and useful to each other, the whole world loses some of its radiance.

Aphorisms are bad for novels. They stick in the reader's teeth.

The contents of someone's bookcase are part of his history, like an ancestral portrait.

To be misunderstood can be the writer's punishment for having disturbed the reader's peace. The greater the disturbance, the greater the possibility of misunderstanding.

If a book is really good, it deserves to be read again, and if it's great, it should be read at least three times.

In an age like ours, which is not given to letter-writing, we forget what an important part it used to play in people's lives.

Rome was a poem pressed into service as a city.

The first divorce in the world may have been a tragedy, but the hundred-millionth is not necessarily one.

A bookcase is as good as a view, as much of a panorama as the sight of a city or a river. There are dawns and sunsets in books - storms and zephyrs.

There are few things more subtly distressing than an inappropriate gift from someone close to you.

The tension between 'yes' and no', between 'I can' and 'I cannot,' makes us feel that, in so many instances, human life is an interminable debate with one's self.

Because of dreams, success is worth pursuing. Because of love, life is worth living.

The press attack people to sell more papers without thinking, but when you get famous you have to put up with this kind of stuff.

Men are moved by two levers only: fear and self interest.

I've been judged my whole life. People always expected amazing things from me.

None of us is as good as we think we are. Every one of us is more than we think we can be.

Expand within your church. Expand within the people you have contact. Bring them up to speed in knowledge on what’s going on.

You can't plan to reach another person on a deep level, it just happens. So those are the moments that I think I really live for.

I just come and talk to the plants, really--very important to talk to them, they respond I find.

The greatest of wealth is the richness of the soul.

Maintain a spirit of peace and you will save a thousand souls.