We should nourish our souls on the dew of Poesy, and manure them as well.

The denunciation of the young is a necessary part of the hygiene of older people, and greatly assists the circulation of the blood.

The test of enjoyment is the remembrance which it leaves behind.

I am one of the unpraised, unrewarded millions without whom Statistics would be a bankrupt science. It is we who are born, who marry, who die, in constant ratios.

It is the dread of something happening, something unknown and dreadful, that makes us do anything to keep the flicker of talk from dying out.

One's own vanities and humiliations I find a delicious subject for conversation. Things said of me behind my back I don't enjoy, and don't listen to them.

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?