There is nothing in the world so incomprehensible as the joke we do not see.

The great dividing line between books that are made to be read and books that are made to be bought is not the purely modern thing it seems. We can trace it, if we try, back to the first printing-presses.

The necessity of knowing a little about a great many things is the most grievous burden of our day. It deprives us of leisure on the one hand, and of scholarship on the other.

the most charming thing about youth is the tenacity of its impressions.

the labors of the true critic are more essential to the author, even, than to the reader.

We know when we have had enough of a friend, and we know when a friend has had enough of us. The first truth is no more palatable than the second.

The worst in life, we are told, is compatible with the best in art. So too the worst in life is compatible with the best in humour.