The radical invents the views. When he has worn them out, the conservative adopts them.
In prayer we call ourselves 'worms of the dust', but it is only on a sort of tacit understanding that the remark shall not be taken at par.
In certain trying circumstances, urgent circumstances, desperate circumstances, profanity furnishes a relief denied even to prayer.
Deep down in me I knowed it was a lie, and He knowed it. You can't pray a lie-I found that out.
Heaven goes by favor; if it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in.
It ain't those parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it's the parts that I do understand.
The pause - that impressive silence, that eloquent silence, that geometrically progressive silence which often achieves a desired effect where no combination of words, howsoever felicitous, could accomplish it.
That kind of so-called housekeeping where they have six Bibles and no cork-screw.
If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything.
I am opposed to millionaires, but it would be dangerous to offer me the position.
I wish to become rich, so that I can instruct the people and glorify honest poverty a little, like those kind-hearted, fat, benevolent people do.
We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it - and stop there, lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stovelid. She will never sit down on a hot stove-lid again - and that is well; but also she will never sit down on a cold one anymore.
Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, and play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.
Work and play are words used to describe the same thing under differing conditions.
I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.
I conceive that the right way to write a story for boys is to write so that it will not only interest boys but strongly interest any man who has ever been a boy. That immensely enlarges the audience.
When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not.
After all these years, I see that I was mistaken about Eve in the beginning; it is better to live outside the Garden with her than inside it without her.
When you fish for love, bait with your heart, not your brain.
The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.