There are some people who want to throw their arms round you simply because it is Christmas; there are other people who want to strangle you simply because it is Christmas.

I sometimes suspect that half our difficulties are imaginary and that if we kept quiet about them they would disappear.

[History is] the story of the magnificent rear-guard action fought during several thousand years by dogma against curiosity.

Any of us can achieve virtue, if by virtue we merely mean the avoidance of the vices that do not attract us.

The telephone is the greatest nuisance among conveniences, the greatest convenience among nuisances.

Cut quarrels out of literature, and you will have very little history or drama or fiction or epic poetry left.

Friendship will not stand the strain of very much good advice for very long.