I think housework is far more tiring and frightening than hunting is, no comparison, and yet after hunting we had eggs for tea and were made to rest for hours, but after housework people expect one to go on just as if nothing special had happened.

I do love translating; it is the pure pleasure of writing without the misery of inventing.

It's a funny thing that people are always ready to admit it if they've no talent for drawing or music, whereas everyone imagines that they themselves are capable of true love, which is a talent like any other, only far more rare.

The English lord marries for love, and is rather inclined to love where money is; he rarely marries in order to improve his coat of arms.

Always be civil to the girls, you never know who they may marry' is a aphorism which has saved many an English spinster from being treated like an Indian widow.

I am sometimes bored by people, but never by life.

Most people like reading about what they already know - there is even a public for yesterday's weather.