The great chasm between the thing I say, & the thing I would say, wd be quite dispiriting to me, in spite even of such kindnesses as yours, if the desire did not master the despondency.

Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.

I like being myself. Myself and nasty.

I am I, and I wish I weren't.

There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception.

An intellectual is a person who has discovered something more interesting than sex.

I ate civilization. It poisoned me; I was defiled. And then," he added in a lower tone, "I ate my own wickedness.

There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's your own self.

One of the principal functions of a friend is to suffer (in a milder and symbolic form) the punishments that we should like, but are unable, to inflict upon our enemies.

There was a thing called Heaven; but all the same they used to drink enormous quantities of alcohol.

To his dog, every man is Napoleon; hence the constant popularity of dogs.

I'm afraid of losing my obscurity. Genuineness only thrives in the dark. Like celery.

I'm claiming the right to be unhappy.

Writers write to influence their readers, their preachers, their auditors, but always, at bottom, to be more themselves.

Don't try to behave as though you were essentially sane and naturally good. We're all demented sinners in the same cosmic boat - and the boat is perpetually sinking.

An unexciting truth may be eclipsed by a thrilling falsehood.

So long as men worship the Caesars and Napoleons, Caesars and Napoleons will duly rise and make them miserable.

The course of every intellectual, if he pursues his journey long and unflinchingly enough, ends in the obvious, from which the non-intellectuals have never stirred.

But then every man is ludicrous if you look at him from outside, without taking into account what’s going on in his heart and mind.

The trouble with fiction," said John Rivers, "is that it makes too much sense. Reality never makes sense.

Universal education has created an immense class of what I may call the New Stupid, hungering for certainty yet unable to find it in the traditional myths and their rationalizations.

Children are remarkable for their intelligence and ardor, for their curiosity, their intolerance of shams, the clarity and ruthlessness of their vision.

Each person is at each moment capable of remembering all that has ever happened to him and of perceiving everything that is happening everywhere in the universe.

Happiness has got to be paid for. You're paying for it, Mr. Watson–paying because you happen to be too much interested in beauty. I was too much interested in truth; I paid too.