I wonder how much it would take to buy a soap bubble, if there were only one in the world.

Reputation is a hall-mark: it can remove doubt from pure silver, and it can also make the plated article pass for pure.

Do not offer a compliment and ask a favor at the same time. A compliment that is charged for is not valuable.

I find that, as a rule, when a thing is a wonder to us it is not because of what we see in it, but because of what others have seen in it. We get almost all our wonders at second hand.

Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it.

Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of joy must have somebody to divide it with.