There is only one person an English girl hates more than she hates her elder sister; and that is her mother.

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

Even to this day it is easier than it ought to be for me to get a rise out of an American by telling him something about himself which is equally true about every human being on the face of the globe. He at once resents this as a disparagement and an assertion on my part that people in other parts of the globe are not like that, and are loftily superior to such weaknesses.

Has fear ever held a man back from anything he really wanted?

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

There is only one universal passion fear.

The art of manipulating public opinion, which is a necessary art for the democratic politician, and, like other arts, is sometimespractised with greater virtuosity by knaves than by honest men (who are apt to disdain it), has a different technique in different countries. For instance, in England we excel in whitewashing: in America they excel in tarring and feathering. We strain our nerves and stretch our consciences to avoid a scandal: Americans do the same to make one.