The modern world... has no notion except that of simplifying something by destroying nearly everything.

When "everyone knows" that something is so, it is always more interesting and often illuminating to assumeexactly the opposite, and to see where that leads.

The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one's own country as a foreign land.

If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.

There is a corollary to the conception of being too proud to fight. It is that the humble have to do most of the fighting.

We are justified in enforcing good morals, for they belong to all mankind; but we are not justified in enforcing good manners, for good manners always mean our own manners.

Marriage is a duel to the death which no man of honour should decline.