"One might define adulthood as the age at which a person learns he must die and accepts his sentence undismayed."

"To be matter of fact about the world is to blunder into fantasy -- and dull fantasy at that, as the real world is strange and wonderful."

"Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards."

"The Office does not sanctify the holder of it."

"If a country can't save itself through the volunteer service of its own free people, then I say: Let the damned thing go down the drain!"

"The supreme irony of life is that hardly anyone gets out of it alive."

"The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one."

"Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president."

"I have a problem about being nearly sixty: I keep waking up in the morning and thinking I'm thirty-one."

"By ignorance is pride increased; those must assume who know the least."

"If you can actually count your money you are not really a rich man."

"Writers should be read but not seen. Rarely are they a winsome sight."