One should not be too severe on English novels; they are the only relaxation of the intellectually unemployed.

Be warned in time, James, and remain, as I do, incomprehensible: to be great is to be misunderstood.

It is a sad truth, but we have lost the faculty of giving lovely names to things. Names are everything. I never quarrel with actions. My one quarrel is with words. The man who could call a spade a spade should be compelled to use one. It is the only thing he is fit for.

The one charm about the past is that it is the past. But women never know when the curtain has fallen.

People who count their chickens before they are hatched act very wisely because chickens run about so absurdly that it's impossible to count them accurately.

Modern pictures are, no doubt, delightful to look at. At least, some of them are. But they are quite impossible to live with; they are too clever, too assertive, too intellectual. Their meaning is too obvious, and their method too clearly defined. One

To live in this world is a rare thing; most people just exist.