If we go to church we are confronted with a system of begging so complicated and so resolute that all other demands sink into insignificance by its side.

the audience is the controlling factor in the actor's life. It is practically infallible, since there is no appeal from its verdict. It is a little like a supreme court composed of irresponsible minors.

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.

If history in the making be a fluid thing, it swiftly crystallizes.

But self-satisfaction, if as buoyant as gas, has an ugly trick of collapsing when full blown, and facts are stony things that refuse to melt away in the sunshine of a smile.

Guests are the delight of leisure, and the solace of ennui.

For my part, the good novel of character is the novel I can always pick up; but the good novel of incident is the novel I can never lay down.