On reducing one’s weight

I can tell you that if there’s nothing wrong with you except fat it is easy to get thin. You eat and drink the same as always, only half. If you are handed a plate of food, leave half; if you have to help yourself, take half. After a while, if you are a perfectionist, you can consume half of that again … On the question of will-power, if that is a factor, you should think of will-power as something that never exists in the present tense, only in the future and the past. At one moment you have decided to do or refrain from an action and the next moment you have already done or refrained; it is the only way to deal with will-power.

From that night on, I decided to eat and drink half … And I decided to tell nobody at all about my plan. Just to say, if pressed, that I’d had enough.

On punctuality

I think that if a clock is not punctual you can’t expect the people who live with it to be.

On telling the truth

No life can be carried on satisfactorily unless people are honest.

I can’t help it. Sometimes the words just come out and I can’t stop them. It feels like preaching the gospel.

On friends in need

I felt uncomfortable in every way, now, talking to him. It is not because we are rats that we tend to abandon people who are down. It is because we are embarrassed.

On seeking work

When you are looking for a job the best thing to do is to tell everyone, high and humble, and keep reminding them please to look out for you. This advice is not guaranteed to find you a job, but it is remarkable how suitable jobs can be found through the most unlikely people …

It is surprising how many people subterraneously believe in destiny. The word goes round, and in a relaxed moment a businessman will listen with interest to the barman or the doorman. Hearing of the very person he is looking for, he might well think that luck has come his way, and arrange to see the applicant next day. There is involved that fine feeling and boast: ‘I just happened to be looking for an accountant, and do you know I got a first-class fellow through the barman at the Goat.’

People love coincidence, destiny, a lucky chance. It is worth telling everyone if you want a job. In any case, while you are looking for a job you are always walking in the dark.