As one reads history, not in the expurgated editions written for schoolboys and passmen, but in the original authorities of each time, one is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted; and a community is infinitely more brutalised by the habitual employment of punishment than it is by the occasional occurrence of crime.

Romance should never begin with sentiment. It should begin with science and end with a settlement.

The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast.

The value of an idea has nothing whatever to do with the sincerity of the man who expresses it.

In all unimportant matters, style, not sincerity, is the essential. In all important matters, style, not sincerity, is the essential.

I don't like Switzerland; it has produced nothing but theologians and waiters.

I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.