Of comic novels that have quaffed the elixir of 'classic': Zuleika Dobson by Max Beerbohm.

The butterfly lures us not only because he is beautiful, but because he is transitory. The caterpillar is uglier, but in him we can regard the better joy of becoming.

The power of language, it seems to me, is the only kind of power a writer is entitled to.

One must avoid ambition in order to write. Otherwise something else is the goal: some kind of power beyond the power of language. And the power of language, it seems to me, is the only kind of power a writer is entitled to.

Why do men carry guns and build prison camps, when the nurturing earth is made for freedom?

We were born to die; we were born to endure, on the way to death, sorrow-sorrow in manifold shapes.

Old saws have no teeth.