The crude commercialism of America, its materialising spirit, its indifference to the poetical side of things, and its lack of imagination and of high unattainable ideals, are entirely due to that country having adopted for its national hero a man who, according to his own confession, was incapable of telling a lie, and it is not too much to say that the story of George Washington and the cherry-tree has done more harm, and in a shorter space of time, than any other moral tale in the whole of literature.

A grand passion is the privelege of people who have nothing to do.

The only horrible thing in the world is ennui.

It's tragic how few people ever 'possess their souls' before they die. 'Nothing is more rare in any man', says Emerson, 'than an act of his own.' It is quite true. Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their life is a mimicry, their passions a quotation.

Well I won't argue about the matter. You always want to argue about things. That is exactly what things were originally made for.

There is no sin except stupidity.

I hate vulgar realism in literature. The man who would call a spade a spade should be compelled to use one.