A joke is not a thing but a process, a trick you play on the listener's mind. You start him off toward a plausible goal, and then by a sudden twist you land him nowhere at all or just where he didn't expect to go.

People who demand neutrality in any situation are usually not neutral but in favor of the status quo.

Classic art was the art of necessity: modern romantic art bears the stamp of caprice and chance.

Emotion is the surest arbiter of a poetic choice, and it is the priest of all supreme unions in the mind.

Humor is the instinct for taking pain playfully.