Fog and hypocrisy - that is to say, shadow, convention, decency - these were the very things that lent to London its poetry and romance.

As a rule the person found out in a betrayal of love holds, all the same, the superior position of the two. It is the betrayed one who is humiliated.

It's always something to get one's wish, even if the wish is a failure.

She could carry off anything; and some people said that she did.

an optimist is the man who looks after your eyes, and the pessimist the person who looks after your feet.

There is, of course, no joy so great as the cessation of pain; in fact all joy, active or passive, is the cessation of some pain, since it must be the satisfaction of a longing, even perhaps an unconscious longing.

Modesty is a valuable merit ... in people who have no other, and the appearance of it is extremely useful to those who have.