But the true evil of drink lies in the disillusion: that the initial pleasure very soon evaporates, leaving a demoralizing craving for more, which is not even temporarily pleasurable. Which then leads to deterioration of the faculties of both body and mind; plus a bewildering lack of co-operation between the two.

anybody who drinks seriously is poor: so poor, poor, extra poor, me.

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

Between threading a needle and raving insanity is the smallest eye in creation.

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

[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.

Anybody who thinks there is any vague chance of adult exchange with a child is up the spout; and would be much less disappointed if they recognized the chasm unbridgeably dividing them.