You are only young once. At the time it seems endless, and is gone in a flash; and then for a very long time you are old.

To one who has led a virtuous life, to sin is the easiest thing in the world. No experience of unpleasant consequences grits that smooth sliding fall, no recollection of disillusionment blurs that pure desire.

no one wants to be praised for possibilities when one has submitted performances.

Young people are careless of their virginity; one day they may have it and the next not.

For the last six weeks I have found myself pestered by some characters in search of an author.

I cannot love people in the country, I discover, because there is always this danger that they may be acquaintances, with all the perils and choleras of acquaintance implicit in them; but in London they seem as charming as rabbits.

When other helpers fail and comforts flee, when the senses decay and the mind moves in a narrower and narrower circle, when the grasshopper is a burden and the postman brings no letters, and even the Royal Family is no longer quite what it was, an obituary column stands fast.