The choice of a topic which will bear analysis and support enthusiasm, is essential to the enjoyment of conversation.

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.

Laughter springs from the lawless part of our nature.

Philadelphians are every whit as mediocre as their neighbors, but they seldom encourage each other in mediocrity by giving it a more agreeable name.

A dead grief is easier to bear than a live trouble.

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

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.