What embitters the world is not excess of criticism, but absence of self-criticism.

There again," said Syme irritably, "what is there poetical about being in revolt? You might as well say that it is poetical to be sea-sick. Being sick is a revolt. Both being sick and being rebellious may be the wholesome thing on certain desperate occasions; but I'm hanged if I can see why they are poetical...It is things going right," he cried, "that is poetical! Our digestions, for instance, going sacredly and silently right, that is the foundation of all poetry...the most poetical thing in the world is not being sick.

If you convey to a woman that something ought to be done, there is always a dreadful danger that she will suddenly do it.

People seem to fight about things very unsuitable for fighting. They make a frightful noise in support of very quiet things. They knock each other about in the name of very fragile things.

Sticking to one woman is a small price to pay for so much as having seen one woman.

Most Americans are born drunk, and really require a little wine or beer to sober them.

You could compile the worst book in the world entirely out of selected passages from the best writers in the world.