Alone, alone, about the dreadful wood / Of conscious evil runs a lost mankind, / Dreading to find its Father.

Genealogies are admirable things, provided they do not encourage the curious delusion that some families are older than others.

The only way to spend New Year's Eve is either quietly with friends or in a brothel. Otherwise when the evening ends and people pair off, someone is bound to be left in tears.

If age, which is certainly Just as wicked as youth, look any wiser, It is only that youth is still able to believe It will get away with anything, while age Knows only too well that it has got away with nothing.

A craftsman knows in advance what the finished result will be, while the artist knows only what it will be when he has finished it.

The trees encountered on a country stroll Reveal a lot about that country's soul ... A culture is no better than its woods.

There are three cardinal rules - don't take somebody else's boyfriend unless you've been specifically invited to do so, don't take a drink without being asked, and keep a scrupulous accounting in financial matters.