We've all of us got to meet the devil alone. Temptation is a lonely business.

In connection with death, or birth, or love, modesty is only a rather puerile self-consciousness.

... it is curious how fatal it is, either to a situation or to an individual, or even to a name, if in an evil moment it becomes funny.

Books are like sapphires; they must be polished - polished! or else you insult your readers.

I'm not to blame for an old body, but I would be to blame for an old soul. An old soul is a shameful thing.

A letter is a risky thing; the writer gambles on the reader's frame of mind.

Weakness is a great bully without knowing it.