It is no good any longer having any opinion upon anything.

There are some points on which no man can be contented to follow the advice of another - some subjects on which a man can consult his own conscience only.

A novelist's characters must be with him as he lies down to sleep, and as he wakes from his dreams. He must learn to hate them and to love them.

One wants in a Prime Minister a good many things, but not very great things. He should be clever but need not be a genius; he should be conscientious but by no means strait-laced; he should be cautious but never timid, bold but never venturesome; he should have a good digestion, genial manners, and, above all, a thick skin.

I do not think myself to be a worm, and a grub, grass of the field fit only to be burned, a clod, a morsel of putrid atoms that should be thrown to the dungheap, ready for the nethermost pit. Nor if I did should I therefore expect to sit with Angels and Archangels.

Success is a poison that should only be taken late in life and then only in small doses.

He was one of those men who, as in youth they are never very young, so in age are they never very old.