Throw yourself into the hurly-burly of life. It doesn't matter how many mistakes you make, what unhappiness you have to undergo. It is all your material ... Don't wait for experience to come to you; go out after experience. Experience is your material.

Simplicity and naturalness are the truest marks of distinction.

She had a pretty gift for quotation, which is a serviceable substitute for wit.

Of all the hokum with which this country [America] is riddled, the most odd is the common notion that it is free of class distinctions.

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

Hypocrisy is the most difficult and nerve-racking vice that any man can pursue; it needs an unceasing vigilance and a rare detachment of spirit. It cannot, like adultery or gluttony, be practiced at spare moments; it is a whole-time job.

A soul is a troublesome possession, and when man developed it he lost the Garden of Eden.