the possession of wealth, and especially the inheritance of wealth, seems almost invariably to sterilize genius.

The interruptions of the telephone seem to us to waste half the life of the ordinary American engaged in public or private business; he has seldom half an hour consecutively at his own disposal - a telephone is a veritable time scatterer.

At present I feel like a caged animal, bound up by the luxury, comfort and respectability of my position. I can't get the training that I want without neglecting my duty.

Are all Cabinets congeries of little autocrats with a super-autocrat presiding over them?

Nature still obstinately refuses to co-operate by making the rich people innately superior to the poor people.

That part of the Englishman's nature which has found gratification in religion is now drifting into political life.

Work is the best of narcotics, providing the patient be strong enough to take it. I dread idleness as if it were Hell.