If you are uninterested in what I say, there's an end to it. If you like what I say, please try to understand which previous influences have made you like it. If you like some of the things I say, and dislike others, you could try to understand why. If you dislike all I say, why not try to find out what formed your attitude?

It is not important to have said a thing first, or best - or even most interestingly. What is important is to say it on the right occasion.

A king who feared wasps once decreed that they were abolished. As it happened, they did him no harm. But he was eventually stung to death by scorpions.

A certain person may have, as you say, a wonderful presence; I do not know. What I do know is that he has a perfectly delightful absence.

Better to be safe than to be sorry' is a remark of value only when these are the actual alternatives.

The impatient man is his own enemy; he slams the door on his own progress.

Advice is priceless: when it becomes interference it is preposterous.