Most of life is so dull that there is nothing to be said about it, and the books and talk that would describe it as interesting are obliged to exaggerate, in the hope of justifying their own existence.

The woman who can't influence her husband to vote the way she wants ought to be ashamed of herself.

Ideas are fatal to caste.

Love is a great force in private life; it is indeed the greatest of all things; but love in public affairs does not work.

It's miles worse for you than that; I'm in love with your gamekeeper.

The test of a round character is whether it is capable of surprising in a convincing way. If it never surprises it is flat. Flat characters ... in their purest form ... are constructed round a single idea or quality; when there is more than one factor to them, we get the beginning of the curve toward the round. The really flat character can be experessed in one sentence such as, "I will never desert Mr Micawber." There is Mrs Micawber - she says she won't desert Mr Micawber; she doesn't, and there she is.

Very notable was his distinction between coarseness and vulgarity, coarseness, revealing something; vulgarity, concealing something.