they're the sort of people one invites to lunch or tea, but never to dinner.

The very thing that seems to impede your progress can often be turned to account for you.

All life is a delusion of the senses.

a diplomat ... is not worthy of the name unless he can say 'no' and make the other person like it - or at least not be offended by it.

Flirting is a cheap, dangerous shortcut to get something you can't hold after you get it.

any fair-minded person will agree that humanity hasn't the faintest inkling, at this time, of the powers and laws that will, sometime, be known and used.

So few people can think and talk at the same time.