It is a great mistake for men to give up paying compliments, for when they give up saying what is charming, they give up thinking what is charming.

Political life at Washington is like political life in a suburban vestry.

I have invented an invaluable permanent invalid called Bunbury, in order that I may be able to go down into the country whenever I choose.

A virtuous abstinence from the joys of pederasty comes most easily to those who have no taste for it.

It is only the unimaginative who ever invents. The true artist is known by the use he makes of what he annexes.

Temperament is the primary requisite for the critic - a temperament exquisitely susceptible to beauty, and to the various impressions that beauty gives us.

There is no mode of action, no form of emotion, that we do not share with the lower animals. It is only by language that we rise above them.