The truth is, hardly any of us have ethical energy enough for more than one really inflexible point of honor.

The doctor learns that if he gets ahead of the superstitions of his patients he is a ruined man; and the result is that he instinctively takes care not to get ahead of them.

A lifetime of happiness! No man alive could bear it: it would be hell on earth.

Both optimists and pessimists contribute to society. The optimist invents the aeroplane, the pessimist the parachute.

When our relatives are at home, we have to think of all their good points or it would be impossible to endure them.

No man can be a pure specialist without being in the strict sense an idiot.

Martyrdom, sir, is what these people like: it is the only way in which a man can become famous without ability.