Whatever you have lived, you can write & by hard work & a genuine apprenticeship, you can learn to write well; but what you have not lived you cannot write, you can only pretend to write it.

There are three infallible ways of pleasing an author, and the three form a rising scale of compliment: 1, to tell him you have read one of his books; 2, to tell him you have read all of his books; 3, to ask him to let you read the manuscript of his forthcoming book. No. 1 admits you to his respect; No. 2 admits you to his admiration; No. 3 carries you clear into his heart.

If there are no cigars in heaven, I shall not go.

Perfect grammar - persistent, continuous, sustained - is the fourth dimension, so to speak; many have sought it, but none has found it.

I don't believe there is anything in the whole earth that you can't learn in Berlin except the German language.

To be vested with enormous authority is a fine thing; but to have the on-looking world consent to it is finer.

We may not doubt that society in heaven consists mainly of undesirable persons.