People generally quarrel because they cannot argue.

Compromise used to mean that half a loaf was better than no bread. Among modern statesmen it really seems to mean that half a loaf is better than a whole loaf.

A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.

Coincidences are spiritual puns.

America is the only nation in the world that is founded on a creed. That creed is set forth with dogmatic and even theological lucidity in the Declaration of Independence.

Circumstances break men's bones; it has never been shown that they break men's optimism.

If a thing is worth doing it is worth doing badly.

Every act of will is an act of self-limitation. To desire action is to desire limitation.

Art, like morality, consists of drawing the line somewhere.

The artistic temperament is a disease that afflics amateurs.

In the end it will not matter to us whether we fought with flails or reeds. It will matter to us greatly on what side we fought.

A good novel tells us the truth about it's hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.

Do not free a camel of the burden of his hump; you may be freeing him from being a camel.

Art consists of limitation. The most beautiful part of every picture is the frame.

Others: A-M | N-Z