Few of us have vitality enough to make any of our instincts imperious.

What is life but a series of inspired follies? The difficulty is to find them to do. Never lose a chance: it doesn’t come every day.

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

Kings are not born: they are made by artificial hallucination.

You propound a complicated arithmetical problem: say cubing a number containing four digits. Give me a slate and half an hour's time, and I can produce a wrong answer.

Christmas is forced upon a reluctant and disgusted nation by the shopkeepers and the press; on its own merits it would wither and shrivel in the fiery breath of universal hatred.

In gambling the many must lose in order that the few may win.