Heroics that don't come off are the very essence of burlesque.

[Did you] ever know a sincere emotion to express itself in a subordinate clause?

A person who tells a secret, swearing the recipient to secrecy in turn, is asking of the other person a discretion which he is abrogating himself.

A human being must have occupation if he or she is not to become a nuisance to the world.

All the children seem to be coming out quite intelligent, thank goodness. It would have been such a bore to be the mother of morons, and it’s an absolute toss-up, isn’t it? If one could only invent them, like characters in books, it would be much more satisfactory to a well-regulated mind.

The popular mind has grown so confused that it is no longer able to receive any statement of fact except as an expression of personal feeling.

I know what you're thinking - that anybody with proper sensitive feelings would rather scrub floors for a living. But I should scrub floors very badly, and I write detective stories rather well. I don't see why proper feelings should prevent me from doing my proper job.