At 50, a man can be an ass without being an optimist but not an optimist without being an ass

Our consciences take no notice of pain inflicted on others until it reaches a point where it gives pain to us.

I am aware that I am very old now; but I am also aware that I have never been so young as I am now, in spirit, since I was fourteen and entertained Jim Wolf with the wasps. I am only able to perceive that I am old by a mental process; I am altogether unable to feel old in spirit. It is a pity, too, for my lapses from gravity must surely often be a reproach to me. When I am in the company of very young people I always feel that I am one of them, and they probably privately resent it.

In Austria an editor who can write well is valuable, but he is not likely to remain so unless he can handle a sabre with charm.

Human beings seem to be a poor invention. If they are the noblest works of God where is the ignoblest?

If you send a damned fool to St. Louis, and you don't tell them he's a damned fool, they'll never find out.

The exquisitely bad is as satisfying to the soul as the exquisitely good. Only the mediocre is unendurable.