There is one gratification an old author can afford a certain class of critics; that namely, of comparing him as he is with what he was. It is a pleasure to mediocrity to have its superiors brought within range.

Life is an end in itself, and the only question as to whether it is worth living is whether you have had enough of it.

To be forgotten is to sleep in peace with the undisturbed myriads, no longer subject to the chills and heats, the blasts, the sleet, the dust, which assail in endless succession that shadow of a man which we call his reputation.

The very minute a thought is threatened with publicity it seems to shrink towards mediocrity.

Even the wisest woman you talk to is ignorant of something you may know, but an elegant woman never forgets her elegance.

As for the excellent little wretches who grow up in what they are taught, with never a scruple or a query, ... they signify nothing in the intellectual life of the race.

Any tax is a discouragement and therefore a regulation so far as it goes.