I must say to myself that I ruined myself, and that nobody great or small can be ruined except by his own hand. I am quite ready to say so. ... Terrible as was what the world did to me, what I did to myself was far more terrible still.

I don't like compliments, and I don't see why a man should think he is pleasing a woman enormously when he says to her a whole heap of things that he doesn't mean.

I beg your pardon I didn't recognise you - I've changed a lot.

The old-fashioned respect for the young is fast dying out.

The only form of lying that is absolutely beyond reproach is lying for its own sake.

Lean on principles, one day they'll end up giving way.

After the first glass, you see things as you wish they were. After the second, you see things as they are not. Finally, you see things as they really are, and that is the most horrible thing in the world.