Emulation is not rivalry. Emulation is the child of ambition; rivalry is the unlovable daughter of envy.

Nothing is as heady as the wine of misfortune.

In painting, you can suddenly come upon something so huge that no-one can deal with it.

Self-love is as protective as the Deity; Disenchantment is as perspicacious as a surgeon; Experience is as provident as a mother. Such are the theologic virtues of marriage.

I should like one of these days to be so well known, so popular, so celebrated, so famous, that it would permit me . . . to break wind in society, and society would think it a most natural thing.

It is easier to be a lover than a husband for the simple reason that it is more difficult to be witty every day than to say pretty things from time to time.

Marriage must perforce fight against the all-devouring monster of habit.