Wisdom requires that we pour a little oil of delicate courtesy on the wheels of friendship.

Change meansmovement. Movement means friction. Only in the frictionless vacuum of anonexistent abstract world can movement or change occur without that abrasivefriction of conflict.

A happy family is but an earlier heaven.

In history, characters and events occur twice, first as tragedy then as farce.

Grantgraciously what you cannot refuse safely and conciliate those you cannotconquer.

Negotiatingin the classic diplomatic sense assumes parties are more anxious to agreethan to disagree.

Every kind of peaceful cooperation among men is primarily basedon mutual trust and only secondarily on institutions such as courts ofjustice and police.

The great advantage of a hotel is that it's a refuge from home life.

You gotto be very careful if you don't know where you're going, because you mightnot get there.

It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier tobe sometimes cheated than not to trust.

Folly is perennial and yet the human race has survived

A large ocean liner was headed across the Atlantic fromPortsmouth to New York. As it neared its destination at night, a lookout onthe wing of the bridge reported, ‘Light, bearing on the starboardbow.’‘Is it steady or moving astern?’ the captain called out