The . . . increase in the power of officials is a constant source of irritation to everybody else.

Contempt for happiness is usually contempt for other people's happiness, and is an elegant disguise for hatred of the human race.

The main things which seem to me important on their own account, and not merely as means to other things, are knowledge, art, instinctive happiness, and relations of friendship or affection.

Neither the Church nor modern public opinion condemns petting, provided it stops short at a certain point.

From the height of their disillusionment they look down upon those whom they despise as simple souls. For my part I have no sympathy with this outlook. All disenchantment is to me a malady, which, it is true, certain circumstances may render inevitable, but which none the less, when it occurs, is to be cured as soon as possible, not to be regarded as a higher form of wisdom.

It's easy to fall in love. The hard part is finding someone to catch you.

Next to enjoying ourselves, the next greatest pleasure consists in preventing others from enjoying themselves, or, more generally, in the acquisition of power.