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

A butler in an English household should, however, be English, and as much like an archbishop as possible.

You don't really know a woman until she writes you a letter.

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

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

People were not charmed with Eglantine because she herself was charming, but because she was charmed.

envy, as a rule, is of success rather than of merit. No one would have objected to his talent deserving recognition - only to his getting it.