There is no country in the world where machinery is so lovely as in America. It was not until I had seen the water-works at Chicago that I realised the wonders of machinery; the rise and fall of the steel rods, the symmetrical motion of the great wheels is the most beautiful rhythmic thing I have ever seen.

There is nothing that stirs in the whole world of thought to which sorrow does not vibrate in terrible and exquisite pulsation.

I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their intellects. A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies.

Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is far the best ending for one.

The Americans are identical to the British in all respects except, of course, language.

The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely. All art is quite useless.

I now see that sorrow, being the supreme emotion of which man is capable, is at once the type and test of all great art.