The trouble with the lower classes is that they lack the sense of tragedy given to them by the upper classes.

But we never get back our youth… The pulse of joy that beats in us at twenty becomes sluggish. Our limbs fail, our senses rot. We degenerate into hideous puppets, haunted by the memory of the passions of which we were too much afraid, and the exquisite temptations that we had not the courage to yield to.

It is a very poor consolation to be told that the man who has given one a bad dinner, or poor wine, is irreproachable in private life. Even the cardinal virtues cannot atone for half-cold entrees.

Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.

Every effect that one produces gives one an enemy. To be popular one must be a mediocrity.

Conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative.

Cultivated leisure is the aim of man.