"He was a genius - that is to say, a man who does superlatively and without obvious effort something that most people cannot do by the uttermost exertion of their abilities."

"A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine building should be seen by morning light, at noon and by moonlight."

"A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine building should be seen by morning light, at noon and by moonlight."

"There is no nonsense so gross that society will not, at some time, make a doctrine of it and defend it with every weapon of communal stupidity."

"Many a promising career has been wrecked by marrying the wrong sort of woman. The right sort of woman can distinguish between Creative Lassitude and plain shiftlessness."

"Tristan and Isolde were lucky to die when they did. They'd have been sick of all that rubbish in a year."

"Each day comes bearing its own gifts. Untie the ribbons."

"The only thing that sustains one through life is the consciousness of the immense inferiority of everybody else, and this is a feeling I have always cultivated."

"The best way to get approval is not to need it."

"God doesn't require us to succeed; he only requires that you try."

"What's on your mind, if you will allow the overstatement."

"Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or ill, it teaches the whole people by its example."