The only way a woman can ever reform a man is by boring him so completely that he loses all possible interest in life. The Picture of Dorian Gray

Be not unwilling in what thou doest, neither selfish nor unadvised nor obstinate; let not over-refinement deck out thy thought; be not wordy nor a busybody. Book III

Sometimes a man wants to be stupid if it lets him do a thing his cleverness forbids. East Of Eden

I believe that there is one story in the world, and only one. . . . Humans are caught—in their lives, in their thoughts, in their hungers and ambitions, in their avarice and cruelty, and in their kindness and generosity too—in a net of good and evil. . . . There is no other story. A man, after he has brushed off the dust and chips of his life, will have left only the hard, clean questions: Was it good or was it evil? Have I done well—or ill? East Of Eden