More from On declining invitation to White House dinner honoring Nobel laureates, as quoted in Life magazine (20 January 1962)
- A gentleman can live through anything.
- Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.
- A man is the sum of his misfortunes. One day you’d think misfortune would get tired, but then time is your misfortune.
- Between grief and nothing I will take grief.
- Clocks slay time. Time is dead as long as it is being clicked off by little wheels; only when the clock stops does time come to life.
- Even a liar can be scared into telling the truth, same as an honest man can be tortured into telling a lie.
Last reviewed 2026-07-06