Pessimism does win us great happy moments.

The critic who justly admires all kinds of things simultaneously cannot love any one of them.

Only mediocrity can be trusted to be always at its best. Genius must always have lapses proportionate to its triumphs.

History does not repeat itself. The historians repeat one another.

The dullard's envy of brilliant men is always assuaged by the suspicion that they will come to a bad end.

I was a modest, good-humoured boy. It is Oxford that has made me insufferable.

People who insist on telling their dreams are among the terrors of the breakfast table.