To be brave in misfortune is to be worthy of manhood; to be wise in misfortune is to conquer fate.

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.

Humor distorts nothing, and only false gods are laughed off their earthly pedestals.

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

There is a secret and wholesome conviction in the heart of every man or woman who has written a book that it should be no easy matter for an intelligent reader to lay down that book unfinished. There is a pardonable impression among reviewers that half an hour in its company is sufficient.

It has been well said that tea is suggestive of a thousand wants, from which spring the decencies and luxuries of civilization.

It is not the office of a novelist to show us how to behave ourselves; it is not the business of fiction to teach us anything.