Whatever has "wit enough to keep it sweet" defies corruption and outlasts all time; but the wit must be of that outward and visible order which needs no introduction or demonstration at our hands.

If everybody floated with the tide of talk, placidity would soon end in stagnation. It is the strong backward stroke which stirs the ripples, and gives animation and variety.

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

Men who believe that, through some exceptional grace or good fortune, they have found God, feel little need of culture.

Sensuality, too, which used to show itself course, smiling, unmasked, and unmistakable, is now serious, analytic, and so burdened with a sense of its responsibilities that it passes muster half the time as a new type of asceticism.

Necessity knows no Sunday.

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