What affects men sharply about a foreign nation is not so much finding or not finding familiar things; it is rather not finding them in the familiar place.

The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one's own country as a foreign land.

Men always talk about the most important things to perfect strangers. In the perfect stranger we perceive man himself; the image of a God is not disguised by resemblances to an uncle or doubts of wisdom of a mustache.

The perplexity of life arises from there being too many interesting things in it for us to be interested properly in any of them.

When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.

All conservatism is based upon the idea that if you leave things alone you leave them as they are. But you do not. If you leave a thing alone you leave it to a torrent of change.