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.

Personally, I do not believe that it is the duty of any man or woman to write a novel. In nine cases out of ten, there would be greater merit in leaving it unwritten.

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

People who pin their faith to a catchword never feel the necessity of understanding anything.

We cannot learn to love other tourists,-the laws of nature forbid it,-but, meditating soberly on the impossibility of their loving us, we may reach some common platform of tolerance, some common exchange of recognition and amenity.

There is always a secret irritation about a laugh in which we cannot join

fair play is less characteristic of groups than of individuals.