In the carriages of the past you can’t go anywhere.

Everybody, my friend, everybody lives for something better to come. That’s why we want to be considerate of every man – Who knows what’s in him, why he was born and what he can do?

Only mothers can think of the future – because they give birth to it in their children.

The most beautiful words in the English language are ‘not guilty’.

There is no one on earth more disgusting and repulsive than he who gives alms. Even as there is no one so miserable as he who accepts them.

What ‘jazz’ means to me is the worst kind of working conditions, the worst in cultural prejudice. The term ‘jazz’ has come to mean the abuse and exploitation of black musicians.

Happiness always looks small while you hold it in your hands, but let it go, and you learn at once how big and precious it is.

You can’t do without philosophy, since everything has its hidden meaning which we must know.

In the carriages of the past you can’t go anywhere.

A good man can be stupid and still be good. But a bad man must have brains.

You must write for children in the same way as you do for adults, only better.

When work is a pleasure, life is a joy! When work is a duty, life is slavery.

When one loves somebody everything is clear – where to go, what to do – it all takes care of itself and one doesn’t have to ask anybody about anything.

Many contemporary authors drink more than they write.

When everything is easy one quickly gets stupid.

In the maxim of the past you cannot go anywhere.

One has to be able to count if only so that at fifty one doesn’t marry a girl of twenty.