You know, there are two good things in life, freedom of thought and freedom of action. In France you get freedom of action: you can do what you like and nobody bothers, but you must think like everybody else. In Germany you must do what everybody else does, but you may think as you choose. They're both very good things. I personally prefer freedom of thought. But in England you get neither: you're ground down by convention. You can't think as you like and you can't act as you like. That's because it's a democratic nation. I expect America's worse.

From the earliest time the old have rubbed it into the young that they are wiser, and before the young had discovered what nonsense this was they were old too, and it profited them to carry on the imposture.

She says it's really not very flattering to her that the women who fall in love with her husband are so uncommonly second-rate.

The subjunctive mood is in its death throes, and the best thing to do is to put it out of its misery as soon as possible.

I daresay one profits more by the mistakes one makes off one's own bat than by doing the right thing on somebody's else advice.

People ask for criticism, but they only want praise.

It is cruel to discover one's mediocrity only when it is too late. It does not improve the temper.