Probably one of the reasons why gushing is so unattractive is that it leaves nothing for the listener to do.

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

All life is a delusion of the senses.

Charm lies in complete forgetfulness of self.

Time is a friend - perhaps the best one we shall ever have. ... Time is a now - and there is only now. Memories look backward. Hope looks ahead. But there is in reality only now.

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.

No one could have been more surprised than I at my successes, and yet deep within me there was acknowledgment that had I not succeeded, I would have been equally surprised.