One of the most adventurous things left us is to go to bed. For no one can lay a hand on our dreams.

What kind of life a dog . . . acquires. I have sometimes tried to imagine by kneeling or lying full length on the ground and looking up. The world then becomes strangely incomplete; one sees little but legs.

Few women and fewer men have enough character to be idle.

There can be no defence like elaborate courtesy.

In betting on races, there are two elements that are never lacking - hope as hope, and an incomplete recollection of the past.

A horse's eye disquiets me: it has an expression of alarm that may at any moment be translated into action.

Americans are people who prefer the Continent to their own country, but refuse to learn its languages.