When I have no idea, I gnaw my nails and invoke the aid of Providence.

There is a homely directness about these rustic apothegms which makes them far more palatable than the strained and sophisticated epigrams of the characters of Oscar Wilde's plays, who are ever striving strenuously to dazzle us with verbal pyrotechnics.

A gentleman need not know Latin, but he should at least have forgotten it.

Give a good deed the credit of a good motive; and give an evil deed the benefit of the doubt.

When I have no idea, I gnaw my nails and invoke the aid of Providence.

To be clear is the first duty of a writer; to charm and to please are graces to be acquired later.

Be brief, be buoyant, and be brilliant.