On the whole, the great success of marriage in the States is due partly to the fact that no American man is ever idle, and partly to the fact that no American wife is considered responsible for the quality of her husband's dinners.

I see when men love women. They give them but a little of their lives. But women when they love give everything.

To do nothing at all is the most difficult thing in the world, the most difficult and the most intellectual.

When I see a spade, I call it a spade. I'm glad to say I have never seen a spade. The man who would call a spade a spade should be compelled to use it. It's the only thing he's fit for.

All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril. Those who read the symbol do so at their peril. It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors. Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex, and vital. When critics disagree, the artist is in accord with himself.

There are moments when art attains almost to the dignity of manual labor.

The gods bestowed on Max [Beerbohm] the gift of perpetual old age.