Your Englishman, confronted by something abnormal will always pretend that it isn't there. If, however, you force him to look into it, he'll at once pretend that he sees the object not for what it is but for something that he would like it to be.

This was an actress who, for twenty years, had the world at her feet. She kicked it away, and the ball rolled out of her reach.

The Englishman can get along with sex quite perfectly so long as he can pretend that it isn't sex but something else.

Theatre director: a person engaged by the management to conceal the fact that the players cannot act.

New Year's Resolution: To tolerate fools more gladly, provided this does not encourage them to take up more of my time.

I don't know very much but what I do know I know better than anybody, and I don't want to argue about it…My mind is not a bed to be made and re-made.

In her early days she had that beatific expression characteristic of Victorian prettiness - like a sheep painted by Raphael.