“When you reach your sixties you have to decide whether you're going to be a sot or an ascetic. In other words if you want to go on working after you're sixty some degree of asceticism is inevitable.”

“Later the place was as deserted as Malcolm Muggeridge's Christmas party of fellow intellectuals.”

“Every happening, great and small, is a parable whereby God speaks to us, and the art of life is to get the message.”

“Travel, of course, narrows the mind.”

“One of the peculiar sins of the twentieth century which we've developed to a very high level is the sin of credulity. It has been said that when human beings stop believing in God they believe in nothing. The truth is much worse: they believe in anything.”

“I can say that I never knew what joy was like until I gave up pursuing happiness, or cared to live until I chose to die. For these two discoveries I am beholden to Jesus.”

“The pursuit of happiness, which American citizens are obliged to undertake, tends to involve them in trying to perpetuate the moods, tastes and aptitudes of youth.”

“One of the many pleasures of old age is giving things up.”

“There is no such thing as darkness only a failure to see. ”

“Bad humor is an evasion of reality good humor is an acceptance of it. ”

“Few men of action have been able to make a graceful exit at the appropriate time.”