"I looked at myself in the mirror. I looked awful, but I always look awful in the mirror. I keep myself going with the firm belief that my real face is much better looking."

"You bought the girls drinks and you stared at their perfect bodies and you pretended that they liked you. And they pretended that they liked you, too. When you stopped spending money, they got up and pretended that they liked someone else."

"Brant felt a spasm of pain. “Uh,” she said. She closed her eyes tight until the pain went away. “Can I do anything?” said Staefler. “Yes,” she said. “Have my baby for me.”"

"A clear conscience doesn’t mean anything if you haven’t any conscience."

"I like business because it is competitive. Business keeps books. The books are the score cards. Profit is the measure of accomplishment, not the ideal measure, but the most practical that can be devised. I like business because it compels earnestness. Amateurs and dilettantes are shoved out. Once in you must fight for survival or be carried to the sidelines. I like business because it requires courage. Cowards do not get to first base. I like business because It demands faith. Faith in human nature, faith in one's self, faith in one's customers, faith in one's employees. I like business because it is the essence of life. Dreams are good, poetical fancies are good, but bread must be baked today, trains must move today, bills must be collected today, payrolls met today. Business feeds, clothes and houses man. I like business because it rewards deeds and not words. I like business because it does not neglect today's task while it is thinking about tomorrow. I like business because it undertakes to please, not to reform. I like business because it is orderly. I like business because it is bold in enterprise. I like business because it is honestly selfish, thereby avoiding the hypocrisy and sentimentality of the unselfish attitude. I like business because it is promptly penalized for its mistakes, shiftlessness and inefficiency. I like business because its philosophy works. I like business because each day is a fresh, adventure."

"He was known to some people as a writer. In his writings he espoused thrift, industry, promptness, perseverance, and dependability. … As far as was possible, the subject of this sketch practiced what he preached. Some of his enemies point to this trait as his foremost weakness."

"An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don't. It's knowing where to go to find out what you need to know, and it's knowing how to use the information once you get it."

"The petty economies of the rich are just as amazing as the silly extravagances of the poor."

"Beware of the man who won't be bothered with details."

"Anyone who can think clearly can write clearly. But neither is easy."

"The way to get things done is to have a good assistant."

"Every job has two salaries. One is the pay you get. The other is the mental satisfaction you derive from working for the company."

"Flattery must be pretty thick before anybody objects to it."

"If you do not have the capacity for happiness with a little money, great wealth will not bring it to you."

"Many people are thwarted by excessive ambition. They want a hundred thousand dollars but are unwilling to save a hundred dollars. They want a big house, but do not accumulate enough money to make the down payment on on a small house. They want to write a book, but will not learn to write a letter. Most men become successful and famous, not through ambition, but through ability and character."

"Uneasy lies the head that ignores a telephone call late at night."

"In closing a deal, what you don’t say may be more helpful than what you do say."

"Setting a good example for children takes all the fun out of middle age."

"When the gardeners are praying for rain, the picnickers are praying for sunshine. So what is the poor Lord to do?"

"A good time is seldom had by all."

"A single fact will often spoil an interesting argument."

"Many of us are dull, but not as dull as the grandchildren think we are."

"The kindness lavished on dogs, if evenly distributed, would establish peace on earth."

"The most difficult jobs look easy until you try to do them."

"Experts never seem to tell us what we’re up against until we’re up against it."

"Let’s not have any more wars to end all war."

"A tinfoil wrapper doesn’t make a bum cigar taste any better."

"The trouble with a man who takes his time is that he takes your time, too."

"Nothing makes us so sleepy as the bell of our alarm clock."

"One of the indictments of civilization is that happiness and intelligence are so rarely found in the same person."

"The wisdom of the wise and the experience of the ages is preserved into perpetuity by a nation's proverbs, fables, folk sayings and quotations."

"As the parish goes, so goes the faith of the people."

"“Abjuring love? Real people don’t do that. Now you’re the one who sounds like someone on a stage. That’s not the real world. Real people follow their hearts, wherever it takes them. Real people refuse to be put into a little tiny box. You can say you love me or you don’t love me, it doesn’t matter; I know you have foresworn nothing except an existence you found intolerable.” She really did smile this time. “Now you’re making me sound like a heroine. Be honest, Lucius. For all that you go on about the real world with its real people, you don’t really want to live in it, either.”"

"Is this politics? I suppose I am going to have to learn all about it, if I am to run Lord Ferris’s household, and throw parties and all. Now...explain to me again just who hates who, and why?"

"“Tell me about the city, then.” The master shrugged. “It’s crowded. It smells. There are lots of things to buy.”"

"Honest change? Honest? Has someone altered the definition of the word while my back was turned, or have you recently developed a sense of humor?"

"“In real life, my sweet poet,” the duke said as the swordsmen circled, “words can never be undone.”"

"“The trouble with you,” the Ugly Girl said, “is that you think you know just what everyone should do, don’t you?” The Mad Duke smiled at her. His face was bright and sharp, smooth and glittering. “Yes,” he said, “I do.” “And what,” she said, “if you’re wrong?” “And what,” he said, “if I’m not?”"

"“You founded the place. Why don’t you want to go?” “I don’t like children,” the duke replied. “Then why put out all that money to preserve them?” “Because it is wrong to let them die.”"

"In a city where most of the wealth is controlled by a small few, certain things are overlooked, particularly when it comes to the assertion of privilege."

"“I heard it clearly, and so did everyone else, I’ll be bound. Your name, dear, not mine. I am very popular. You, it seems, are not.” “What a surprise.” He dropped petals on the floor. “And what a good thing I don’t care.” “How nice for you that you don’t have to.” “Meaning,” he drawled, “that you do.” “Just so.”"

"“I thought I would be safe here.” “You are.” For the first time, he touched her, touched her hand. “Safe from everything but paper and ink. Please. Put those down.” “Paper and ink.” She clutched the books to her ample chest. “They’re not nothing, Alec. They’re pretty much everything to me: the embodiment of ideas, of thought—of free and open thought. Of inquiry and supposition. All of it.”"

"Our theories stand. We both see clearly; we know what’s right. Even if it’s not always possible to act on it, don’t you think it matters to be able to call things by their true names?"

"I’m the Duke of Riverside. I build things here and pretty much keep the peace, and discourage certain behaviors. If you think all that has been achieved through entirely civil and lawful means, you’ve had your head in a bucket."

"He felt the almost sexual thrill of being the one in the room with all the power."

"“I was afraid you wouldn’t take me seriously.” “I did. But I am preparing,” the duke said, “to revise that opinion. Stop playing and tell me what you want.” “And you’ll give it to me?” “What do you think? If it’s reasonable, I’ll consider it. If it’s not, I have the resources to annoy you very much as you’ve been annoying me. It’s true I have more scruples—but I’m willing to suspend them. I also have more money, you see—lots more money. I wasn’t planning to waste any of it on you, but I could be convinced to change my mind.”"

"There it is — in such patient silence — that we accumulate the inward power which we distribute and spend in action; that the soul acquires a greater and more vigorous being, and gathers up its collective forces to bear down upon the piecemeal difficulties of life and scatter them to dust; there alone can we enter into that spirit of self-abandonment by which we take up the cross of duty, however heavy, with feet however worn and bleeding."

"That soul is on the certain path toward light which, sincerely desiring the light, constantly submits to the claims of the light as they are made known. That soul cannot stay in darkness, any more than a flower opening its petals broadly to the sun can stay in shadow."

""Lo! I am with you alway, even to the end of the world," is not an idle — not an unfulfilled promise. He is not with us merely as a thought, but as a life. He gathers us up into His own being. He floods us with it. There is inspiration here, certainty for any duty, for any endurance. The faith, Christ with me, can make the poorest and the hardest life luminous; joyous, glorious."

"Let us see to it that in our schools, as far as possible, every week, some lessons from Scripture, in the language of the Scripture are learned."