He who lies artistically, treads closer to the truth than ever he knows. - Fritz Leiber

And just think what rare delights—nay, what whole sets of ecstasies and blisses—this much gold would buy. How fortunate that metal was mindless slave of the man who held it!

Girls had a way of blotting out all lesser, but not thereby despicable, delights. Girls were for dessert.

He knew that sooner or later, in spite of all protecting charms and precautions, Death would creep silently on him or spring suddenly from some unguarded moment. This very night his horoscope might signal Death’s instant escapeless approach; and though men lived by lies, treating truth’s very self as lie to be exploited, the stars remained the stars.