Peculiar or not, it is my idea of pleasure. Why, why else do you lead this life you don't enjoy it? Don't talk of duty to me; you men always have some high-sounding excuse for indulging yourselves. You go gallivanting over the earth, climbing mountains, looking for the sources of the Nile; and expect women to sit dully at home embroidering. I embroider very badly. I think I would excavate rather well.
To argue without knowledge is like trying to weave without thread.
That's maturity-when you realize that you've finally arrived at a state of ignorance as profound as your parents.
Reputations are shaped not by facts but by prejudices.
People who relate what they believe to be new and startling information like to have such information received with exclamations of astonishment and admiration.
I am so tired of ruggedly handsome heroes. I don't know too many ruggedly handsome people who are necessarily nice people. In fact, the beautiful people have a big handicap because they rely too much on their appearance and don't bother to become interesting.
Your trousers are on fire. I would have told you, but you so dislike advice.
The only way to do it is to do it: by writing, writing, writing.
Who are we really? Combinations of common chemicals that perform mechanical actions for a few years before crumbling back into the original components? Fresh new souls, drawn at random for some celestial cupboard where God keeps an unending supply?Or the same soul, immortal and eternal, refurbished and reused through endless lives, by that thrifty Housekeeper? In Her wisdom and benevolence She wipes off the memory slates, as part of the cleaning process, because if we could remember all the things we have experienced in earlier lives, we might object to risking it again.
there is nothing like a garden to rest the soul.
Conventional history completely ignores half the human race.
Martyrdom is often the result of excessive gullibility.
Now, Mama, Papa, and sir," said Ramses, "please withdraw to the farthest corner and crouch down with your backs turned. It is as I feared; we will never break through by this method. The walls are eight feet thick. Fortunately I brought along a little nitroglycerin--" "Oh, good Gad," shrieked Inspector Cuff.
When emotion supersedes reason ... gullibility must follow.
Money was the manure of politics.
I never meant to marry. In my opinion, a woman born in the last half of the nineteenth century of the Christian era suffered from enough disadvantages without willfully embracing another.
The approval of a cat cannot but flatter the recipient.
It's not unsporting to thrash a cowardly cad,' said Simmons. 'Everyone knows you don't fight like a gentleman.' 'That might be called an oxymoron,' Ramses said. 'Oh--sorry. Bad form to use long words. Look it up when you get home.' The poor devil didn't know how to fight, like a gentleman or otherwise.
Emerson,' I said, choosing my words with care, 'it is a sheer drop from the cleft down to the base of the cliff. If you are bent on breaking your arm or your leg or your neck or all three, find a place closer to home so we won't have to carry you such a distance.
Writing is like a bird-watcher watching for birds: the stories are there: you just have to train yourself to look for them.
kissing someone out of pity is always a mistake.
A fondness for martyrdom, especially of the verbal variety, is common to the young.
It was hate at first sight, clean, pure and strong as grain alcohol.
Most men are reasonably useful in a crisis. The difficulty lies in convincing them that the situation has reached a critical point
If all else fails, we will simply have to drug our attendants, overpower the guards, raise the oppressed peasants to arms, and take over the government.
