England, where nobody ever says what they mean: and by denying feeling, kill it off stone-cold at the roots.

There is a brotherliness about a drinking person, which is coldly lacking in the straight and narrow enemies of drink; the difference between the two is more marked than nationality or belief: it is an opposite species altogether. It is against the unwritten laws of congeniality for them to mix. For me, a man who does not drink is distinctly indecent.

[On journalists:] ... however lyingly libellous they may be: nobody can seriously hurt the reputation of a Great person. If he is hurt: he is not Great. They can but scratch at his skin with their mice nails.

There is, happily, no limit to the faith of human nature in believing what it wants to believe.

There is a great gulf between the really creative person and normal people. The totally creative person does not have the rest of his life in proper proportion.

I don't trust sentimentality in men; it goes with tyranny; you can't have one without the other.

My bitterness is not an abstract substance, it is as solid as a Christmas cake; I can cut it in slices and hand it round and there is still plenty left, for tomorrow.