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.

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

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.

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.

I... wonder what it is in the New York air that enables me to sit up till all hours of the night in an atmosphere which in London would make a horse dizzy, but here merely clears the brain.

Don't pity me now, don't pity me never; I'm going to do nothing for ever and ever.

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