You have never been poor, and never known what ambition is.

You can hardly imagine that I and Lord Bracknell would dream of allowing our only daughter - a girl brought up with the utmost care - to marry into a cloak-room, and form an alliance with a parcel?

There is a luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves we feel no one else has a right to blame us.

A burnt child loves the fire.

The cities of America are inexpressibly tedious. The Bostonians take their learning too sadly; culture with them is an accomplishment rather than an atmosphere; their Hub, as they call it, is the paradise of prigs. Chicago is a sort of monster-shop, full of bustles and bores. Political life at Washington is like political life in a suburban vestry. Baltimore is amusing for a week, but Philadelphia is dreadfully provincial; and though one can dine in New York one could not dwell there.

Thinking is wonderful, but the experience is even more wonderful.

I think life too complex a thing to be settled by these hard and fast rules.