The Ideal Man should talk to us as if we were goddesses, and treat us as if we were children. He should refuse all our serious requests, and gratify every one of our whims. He should encourage us to have caprices, and forbid us to have missions. He should always say much more than he means, and always mean much more than he says.

I had buried my romance in a bed of asphodel.

When I think of all the harm [the Bible] has done, I despair of ever writing anything to equal it.

An alliterative prefix served as an ornament of oratory.

America is one long expectoration.

His morality is all sympathy, just what morality should be

Unless one is wealthy there is no use in being a charming fellow. Romance is the privilege of the rich, not the profession of the unemployed. The poor should be practical and prosaic. It is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating.