My dear father always said that when everybody had a telephone nobody would have any manners, because there wouldn't be time for them. And of course he was perfectly right.

Anyone who pretends not to be interested in money is either a fool or a knave.

Mary Stuart wrote, 'My end is in my beginning.' It is easier to agree with her than to decide what is the beginning, and what is the end.

It is always better to say too little than too much.

there are virtues which are very well in the abstract, but which, encountered in the flesh, can be a source of extreme irritation.

Being in a rage was rather like being out in a thunderstorm - you couldn't hear yourself think.

The fact is, people who don't have any misfortunes are very irritating to their neighbours. No opportunities for popping in with condolences and new-laid eggs. No visits to the afflicted. No opportunities for the milk of human kindness to flow. Naturally it doesn't.