To a professional critic (I have been one myself) theatre-going is the curse of Adam. The play is the evil he is paid to endure in the sweat of his brow; and the sooner it is over, the better.

Hell is full of musical amateurs.

My main reason for adopting literature as a profession was that, as the author is never seen by his clients, he need not dress respectably.

Such poverty as we have today in all our great cities degrades the poor, and infects with its degradation the whole neighborhood in which they live. And whatever can degrade a neighborhood can degrade a country and a continent and finally the whole civilized world, which is only a large neighborhood.

It is the inefficiency and sham of ... our schools ... that save us from being dashed on the rocks of false doctrine instead of drifting down the midstream of mere ignorance.

It is the highest creatures who take the longest to mature, and are the most helpless during their immaturity.

The joy in life is to be used for a purpose. I want to be used up when I die.