Civilisation makes us all as alike as peas in a pod, and it is the very uncouth - uncivilised, if you will - element which individualises nations.

Marriage with love is entering heaven with one's eyes shut, but marriage without love is entering hell with them open.

Many people with a wild desire to act prove failures on the stage, their inclinations are greater than their powers. Rarely is it the other way.

Adversity is the touchstone of character: it is not in success but in misfortune that hidden powers bear fruit.

The most powerful book in the world at the beginning of the twentieth century is the check-book.

No Southern people ever seem to possess the energy of their Northern brothers, and in Sicily a dolce far niente life is much enjoyed. Time is no object. According to Pliny, Aristhomacus watched the life of the bee carefully for fifty-eight years, which is just the sort of work a Sicilian of to-day would like.

Theatrical work means too much work or none.