How often my soul visits the National Gallery, and how seldom

The great art of writing is the art of making people real to themselves with words.

He who goes against the fashion is himself its slave

How can they say my life is not a success? Have I not for more than sixty years got enough to eat and escaped being eaten?

There are two things to aim at in life: first, to get what you want; and after that, to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second.

What pursuit is more elegant than that of collecting the ignominies of our nature and transfixing them for show, each on the bright pin of a polished phrase?

It is through the cracks in our brains that ecstasy creeps in.