Some authorities hold that the young ought not to lie at all. That, of course, is putting it rather stronger than necessary; still, while I cannot go quite so far as that, I do maintain, and I believe I am right, that the young ought to be temperate in the use of this great art until practice and experience shall give them that confidence, elegance and precision which alone can make the accomplishment graceful and profitable.

All human rules are more or less idiotic.

A successful book is not made of what is in it, but what is left out of it.

We must look for our own blame to find our own personality.

[Patriotism] ...is a word which always commemorates a robbery. There isn't a foot of land in the world which doesn't represent the ousting and re-ousting of a longline of successive "owners" who each in turn, as "patriots" with proud swelling hearts defended it against the next gang of "robbers" who came to steal it and did -- and became swelling-hearted patriots in their turn.

When majority is insane, sane must go to asylum.

Creed and opinion change with time, and their symbols perish; but Literature and its temples are sacred to all creeds and inviolate.