The world of shabby gentility is like no other; its sacrifices have less logic, its standards are harsher, its relation to reality is dimmer than comfortable property or plain poverty can understand.

The genteel is a mighty catafalque of service-with-a-smile and flattering solicitude smothering every spontaneous movement of thought or feeling.

No man is inherently respectable, but all women are by nature.

Respectability, n. The offspring of a liaison between a bald head and a bank account.

The more things a man is ashamed of, the more respectable he is.