I do not believe they are right who say that the defects of famous men should be ignored. I think it is better that we should know them. Then, though we are conscious of having faults as glaring as theirs, we can believe that that is no hindrance to our achieving also something of their virtues.

Life is really very fantastic, and one has to have a peculiar sense of humour to see the fun of it. [Virtue]

The author always loads his dice, but he must never let the reader see that he has done so.

The great tragedy of life is not that men perish, but that they cease to love.

There in the mist, enormous, majestic, silent and terrible, stood the Great Wall of China. Solitarily, with the indifference of nature herself, it crept up the mountain side and slipped down to the depth of the valley.

If you want to eat well in England, eat three breakfasts.

Things were easier for the old novelists who saw people all of a piece. Speaking generally, their heroes were good through and through, their villains wholly bad.