The habit of writing clearly soon comes to the writer who is a severe critic to himself.

As to happiness in this life it is hardly compatible with that diminished respect which ever attends the relinquishing of labour.

I hate a stupid man who can't talk to me, and I hate a clever man who talks me down. I don’t like a man who is too lazy to make any effort to shine; but I particularly dislike the man who is always striving for effect. I abominate a humble man, but yet I love to perceive that a man acknowledges the superiority of my sex, and youth and all that kind of thing. . . A man who would tell me that I am pretty, unless he is over seventy, ought to be kicked out of the room. But a man who can't show me that he thinks me so without saying a word about it, is a lout.

The Church of England is the only church in the world that interferes neither with your politics nor your religion

It is hard to rescue a man from the slough of luxury and idleness combined. If anything can do it, it is a cradle filled annually.

When a man wants to write a book full of unassailable facts, he always goes to the British Museum.

Three hours a day will produce as much as a man ought to write.