“Few people...have had much training in listening. The training of most oververbalized professional intellectuals is in the opposite direction. Living in a competitive culture, most of us are most of the time chiefly concerned with getting our own views across, and we tend to find other people's speeches a tedious interruption of the flow of our own ideas.”

“It is not true that 'we have only one life to live'; if we can read, we can live as many more lives and as many kinds of lives as we wish.”

“It is not true we have only one life to love, if we can read, we can live as many lives and as many kinds of lives as we wish.”

“To perceive how language works, what pitfalls it conceals, what its possibilities are, is to comprehend a crucial aspect of the complicated business of living the life of a human being.”

“Exactitude is the lowest form of pictorial gratification.”

“When you are with the people you like, you tend to be happier.”

“Most of us find our own voices only after we’ve sounded like a lot of other people.”