To write simply is as difficult as to be good.

Of all these the richest in beauty is the beautiful life. That is the perfect work of art. ~Waddington

We learn resignation not by our own suffering, but by the suffering of others.

Only a mediocre person is always at his best.

There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.

Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit. It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it. Like all weak men he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one's mind.

For men, as a rule, love is but an episode which takes place among the other affairs of the day, and the emphasis laid on it in novels gives it an importance which is untrue to life. There are few men to whom it is the most important thing in the world, and they are not the very interesting ones; even women, with whom the subject is of paramount interest, have a contempt for them.