Rex Stout Quotations

God made you and me, in certain respects, quite unequal, and it would be futile to try any interference with His arrangements.

Sometimes it's things that take the joy out of life, like a blowout when you're hitting sixty or a button coming off of a shirt when you're in a hurry, but usually it's people.

There are damn few great writers and I'm not one of them. While I could afford to I played with words. When I could no longer afford that I wrote for money.

No man with any sense assumes that a woman's words mean to her exactly what they mean to him.

Labels are for the things men make, not for men. The most primitive man is too complex to be labeled.

War doesn't mature men; it merely pickles them in the brine of disgust and dread.

It is always wiser, where there is a choice, to trust inertia. It is the greatest force in the world.

I like to walk around Manhattan, catching glimpses of its wild life, the pigeons and cats and girls.

If your ego is in good shape you will pretend you're surprised if a National Chairman calls you to tell you his party wants to nominate you for President of the United States, but you're not really surprised.

I love to make a mistake. It is my only assurance that I cannot reasonably be expected to assume the responsibility of omniscience.