The man who never tells an unpalatable truth 'at the wrong time' (the right time has yet to be discovered) is the man whose success in life is fairly well assured.

We owe to one another all the wit and good humour we can command; and nothing so clears our mental vistas as sympathetic and intelligent conversation.

A villain must be a thing of power, handled with delicacy and grace. He must be wicked enough to excite our aversion, strong enough to arouse our fear, human enough to awaken some transient gleam of sympathy. We must triumph in his downfall, yet not barbarously nor with contempt, and the close of his career must be in harmony with all its previous development.

We know when we have had enough of a friend, and we know when a friend has had enough of us. The first truth is no more palatable than the second.

It is unwise to feel too much if we think too little.

Next to the joy of the egotist is the joy of the detractor.

The comfortable thing about the study of history is that it inclines us to think hopefully of our own times.