Admiration involves a glorious obliquity of vision.

A quiet city is a contradiction in terms. It is a thing uncanny, spectral.

To say that a man is vain means merely that he is pleased with the effect he produces on other people. A conceited man is satisfied with the effect he produces on himself.

Most women are not so young as they are painted.

The critic who justly admires all kinds of things simultaneously cannot love any one of them.

Anything that is worth doing has been done frequently. Things hitherto undone should be given, I suspect, a wide berth.

It is a part of English hypocrisy-or English reserve-that, whilst we are fluent enough in grumbling about small inconveniences, we insist on making light of any great difficulties or griefs that may beset us.

Men prominent in life are mostly hard to converse with. They lack small-talk, and at the same time one doesn't like to confront them with their own great themes.

It is easier to confess a defect than to claim a quality.

To give and then not feel that one has given is the very best of all ways of giving.