Every path to a new understanding begins in confusion.
Knowledge and power in the city; peace and decency in the country.
Sophistication knows the score, but is powerless to change it.
Jargon is part ceremonial robe, part false beard.
Spontaneity comes after skill, not before.
Keep your lies short and simple.
The realist lies for advantage. The fantasist lies to give his dreams a flavor of reality.
Eccentricity is originality that leads nowhere.
More are weakened than strengthened by their troubles.
Our troubles keep us going.
Nobody knows the trouble I've seen: even less, the trouble I've successfully avoided.
The critical spirit never knows when to stop meddling.
Masturbation is a democratic pleasure, practiced by rich and poor, young and old, married and single.
The power of lying is much less than the power of what is not to be discussed.
Faith of the bore: everything is worth saying.
Travelers never think that they are the foreigners.
When a paradox is widely believed, it is no longer recognized as a paradox.
Maxims are sharp-edged half-truths.
Pride sings and dances; humility sighs.
The psychiatrist's office: the only place I can be sure my story will be treated as sad, but interesting.
No chaos, no creation. Evidence: the kitchen at mealtime.
My father was a patriarch inside a matriarchy, but never knew it.
Few artists can afford artistic temperament.
Vice is a dreary business. And virtue is not a lot of fun, either.
Romance is tempestuous. Love is calm.
