Ordinary people waited till life disclosed to them its secrets, but to the few, to the elect, the mysteries of life were revealed before the veil was drawn away. Sometimes this was the effect of art, and chiefly of the art of literature, which dealt immediately with the passions and the intellect.

Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account.

The mere mechanical technique of acting can be taught, but the spirit that is to give life to lifeless forms must be born in a man. No dramatic college can teach its pupils to think or to feel. It is Nature who makes our artists for us, though it may be Art who taught them their right mode of expression.

Before Turner there was no fog in London.

Pleasure is Nature's test, her sign of approval.

I can resist everything except temptation.

Is insincerity such a terrible thing? I think not. It is merely a method by which we can multiply our personalities.