May 13

Critics are biased, and so are readers. But intelligent readers soon discover how to allow for the windage of their own and a critic's prejudices.

May 14

If no use is made of the labors of past ages, the world must remain always in the infancy of knowledge.

May 15

The percentage of mistakes in quick decisions is no greater than in long-drawn-out vacillations, and the effect of decisiveness itself "makes things go" and creates confidence.

May 16

History is, strictly speaking, the study of questions; the study of answers belongs to anthropology and sociology.

May 17

Free man is by necessity insecure; thinking man by necessity uncertain.

May18

Nature magically suits a man to his fortunes by making them the fruit of his character.

May 19

People are people, messy and mutable, combining differently with one another from day to day, even hour to hour.

May 20

Beauty and truth may be attributes of good writing, but if the writer deliberately aims at truth, he is likely to find that what he has hit is the didactic.

May 21

I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value.