“Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.”

“Surely the Board knows what democracy is. It is the line that forms on the right. It is the don’t in Don’t Shove. It is the hole in the stuffed shirt through which the sawdust slowly trickles; it is the dent in the high hat. Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half the people are right more than half the time. It is the feeling of privacy in the voting booths, the feeling of communion in the libraries, the feeling of vitality everywhere. Democracy is the score at the beginning of the ninth. It is an idea which hasn’t been disproved yet, a song the words of which have not gone bad. It’s the mustard on the hot dog and the cream in the rationed coffee. Democracy is a request from a War Board, in the middle of a morning in the middle of a war, wanting to know what democracy is.”

“Genius is more often found in a cracked pot than in a whole one.”

“Life's accumulation is more discouraging than life itself, when stirred up.”

“An editor is a person who knows more about writing than writers do but who has escaped the terrible desire to write.”

“English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment and education - sometimes it's sheer luck, like getting across the street.”

“Once in everyone's life there is apt to be a period when he is fully awake, instead of half-asleep.”