The true savage is a slave, and is always talking about what he must do; the true civilised man is a free man, and is always talking about what he may do.

It was not the house that grew dull, but I that grew dull in it. My wife was better than all women, and yet I could not feel it.

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.

Just the other day in the Underground I enjoyed the pleasure of offering my seat to three ladies.

No one can understand Paris and its history who does not understand that its fierceness is the balance and justification of its frivolity. It is called a city of pleasure; but it may also very specially be called a city of pain. The crown of roses is also a crown of thorns. Its people are too prone to hurt others, but quite ready also to hurt themselves. They are martyrs for religion, they are martyrs for irreligion; they are even martyrs for immorality.

It is quite an old-fashioned fallacy to suppose that our objection to scepticism is that it removes the discipline from life. Our objection to scepticism is that it removes the motive power. Materialism is not a thing which destroys mere restraint. Materialism itself is the great restraint.

And Noah he often said to his wife when he sat down to dine, "I don't care where the water goes if it doesn't get into the wine."