"I don’t know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve."

"I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer history, true or feigned, with its consistent int…"

"He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom."

"Evil is not new. It is as old as the world itself."

"An author cannot of course remain wholly unaffected by his experience, but the desire to write has to be given to him, and the means to write depends on his power to bring it out of himself."