The great critic … must be a philosopher, for from philosophy he will learn serenity, impartiality, and the transitoriness of human things.

We have long passed the Victorian Era when asterisks were followed after a certain interval by a baby.

Advice to first year medical students: In anatomy, it is better to have learned and lost than never to have learned at all.

It is astonishing how many books I find there is no need for me to read at all.

You're beginning to dislike me, aren't you? Well, dislike me. It doesn't make any difference to me now.

I know that I shall die struggling for breath, and I know that I shall be horribly afraid. I know that I shall not be able to keep myself from regretting bitterly the life that has brought me to such a pass; but I disown that regret. I now, weak, old, diseased, poor, dying, hold still my soul in my hands, and I regret nothing.

Oh, it's always the same,' she sighed, 'if you want men to behave well to you, you must be beastly to them; if you treat them decently they make you suffer for it.