The scenes of our life are like pictures done in rough mosaic. Looked at close, they produce no effect. There is nothing beautiful to be found in them, unless you stand some distance off.

With people of limited ability modesty is merely honesty. But with those who possess great talent it is hypocrisy.

(Politeness is) a tacit agreement that people's miserable defects, whether moral or intellectual, shall on either side be ignored and not be made the subject of reproach.

Boredom is just the reverse side of fascination: both depend on being outside rather than inside a situation, and one leads to the other.

The business of the novelist is not to relate great events, but to make small ones interesting.

A hedge between keeps friendship green.

Religion is the masterpiece of the art of animal training, for it trains people as to how they shall think.