The reason we all like to think so well of others is that we are all afraid for ourselves. The basis of optimism is sheer terror.

It seems to me that we all look at Nature too much, and live with her too little.

Education is very admirable but let us not forget that anything worth knowing cannot be taught.

Men always want to be a woman's first love. That is their clumsy vanity. We women have a more subtle instinct about things.

You have killed my love. You used to stir my imagination. Now you don't even stir my curiosity. You simply produce no effect. I loved you because you were marvelous, because you had genius and intellect, because you realized the dreams of great poets and gave shape and substance to the shadows of art. You have thrown it all away. You are shallow and stupid

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

The study of law is sublime, and its practice vulgar.