A man's work is rather the needful supplement to himself than the outcome of it.

The hospitable instinct is not wholly altruistic. There is pride and egoism mixed up with it.

Some people are born to lift heavy weights, some are born to juggle golden balls.

Not that I had any special reason for hating school. Strange as it may seem to my readers, I was not unpopular there. I was a modest, good-humoured boy. It is Oxford that has made me insufferable.

Great men are but life-sized. Most of them, indeed, are rather short.

It is a fact that not once in all my life have I gone out for a walk. I have been taken out for walks; but that is another matter.

To say that a man is vain means merely that he is pleased with the effect he produces on other people.