“Self-respect is a discipline, a habit of mind.”
“You sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends.”
“I don’t know what I think until I write it.”
“We forget all too soon the things we thought we could never forget.”
“Writers are always selling somebody out.”
“Grammar is a piano I play by ear.”
“Life changes fast. Life changes in the instant.”
“Character — the willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life — is the source from which self-respect springs.”
“I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking.”
“We tell ourselves stories in order to live.”
“The needy animal knows how much it needs, but the needy man does not.”
“By convention sweet is sweet, bitter is bitter; in truth, only atoms and the void.”
“Good breeding in cattle depends on physical health, but in men on a well-formed character.”
“I would rather discover one cause than gain the kingdom of Persia.”
“Moderation increases enjoyment, and makes pleasure even greater.”
“Education is an ornament for the prosperous, a refuge for the unfortunate.”
“Men have fashioned an image of Chance as an excuse for their own stupidity.”
“Many much-learned men have no intelligence.”
“Medicine heals diseases of the body; wisdom frees the soul from passions.”
“Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion.”