The essence of humor is that it should be unexpected, that it should embody an element of surprise, that it should startle us out of that reasonable gravity which, after all, must be our habitual frame of mind.

There are few things more wearisome in a fairly fatiguing life than the monotonous repetition of a phrase which catches and holds the public fancy by virtue of its total lack of significance.

The impulse to travel is one of the hopeful symptoms of life.

A world of vested interests is not a world which welcomes the disruptive force of candor.

The friendships of nations, built on common interests, cannot survive the mutability of those interests.

the pleasure of possession, whether we possess trinkets, or offspring - or possibly books, or prints, or chessmen, or postage stamps - lies in showing these things to friends who are experiencing no immediate urge to look at them.

The vanity of man revolts from the serene indifference of the cat.