Never be afraid of What is good; the good is always the road to what is true.

Conversation is interesting in proportion to the originality of the central ideas which serve as pivots and the fitness of the little facts and observations which are contributed by the talkers.

Avowed work, even when uncongenial, is far less trying to patience than feigned pleasure.

People have prejudices against a nation in which they have no acquaintances.

Society will be obeyed; if you refuse obedience, you must take the consequences. Society has only one law, and that is custom. Even religion itself is socially powerful only just so far as it has custom on its side.

Thackeray and Balzac will make it possible for our descendants to live over again the England and France of to-day. Seen in this light, the novelist has a higher office than merely and amuse his contemporaries.

Culture is like wealth; it makes us more ourselves, it enables us to express ourselves