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.

The mere mechanical technique of acting can be taught, but the spirit that is to give life to lifeless forms must be born in a man. No dramatic college can teach its pupils to think or to feel. It is Nature who makes our artists for us, though it may be Art who taught them their right mode of expression.

Scandal is gossip made tedious by morality.

Pleasure is Nature's test, her sign of approval. When man is happy, he is in harmony with himself and his environment.

The proper aim is to try and reconstruct society on such a basis that poverty will be impossible.

The world seemed to me fine because you were in it, and goodness more real because you lived.

London is full of women who trust their husbands. One can always recognize them. They look so thoroughly unhappy.