Agitators are a set of interfering, meddling people, who come down to some perfectly contented class of the community and sow the seeds of discontent amongst them. That is the reason why agitators are so absolutely necessary. Without them, in our incomplete state, there would be no advance towards civilization.

Anybody can write a three-volume novel. It merely requires a complete ignorance of both life and literature.

They have been eating muffins. That looks like repentance

As one reads history ... one is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted.

People are very fond of giving away what they need most themselves. It is what I call the depth of generosity.

The tragedy of the poor is that they can afford nothing but self denial.

What the worm was to the corpse, his sins would be to the painted image on the canvas. They would mar its beauty, and eat away its grace. they would defile it, and make it shameful. And yet the thing would still live on. It would be always alive. (Dorian Gray regarding his portrait)