Have you noticed ... there is never any third act in a nightmare? They bring you to a climax of terror and then leave you there. They are the work of poor dramatists.

To give an accurate and exhaustive account of that period would need a far less brilliant pen than mine.

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

Of all the objects of hatred, a woman once loved is the most hateful.

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

Heroes are very human, most of them; very easily touched by praise.

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