Just as the worst slave-owners were those who were kind to their slaves, and so prevented the horror of the system being realized by those who suffered from it, and understood by those who contemplated it, so, in the present state of things in England, the people who do most harm are the people who try to do most good.

The 19thc hatred of Realism is Caliban's enraged reaction to seeing his own face in the mirror. The 19thc rejection of Romanticism is Caliban's fury at not seeing his face reflected in the mirror.

The more one analyses people, the more all reasons for analysis disappear. Sooner or later one comes to that dreadful universal thing called human nature.

All love is true, but not all truth ... is love?

The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it... I can resist everything but temptation.

What we have to do, what at any rate it is our duty to do, is to revive the old art of Lying.

If God really wanted to punish, he'd answer all our prayers.