Reverie is the groundwork of creative imagination; it is the privilege of the artist that with him it is not as with other men an escape from reality, but the means by which he accedes to it.

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.

When people say they do not care what others think of them, for the most part they deceive themselves. Generally they mean only that they will do as they choose, in the confidence that no one will know their vagaries; and at the utmost only that they are willing to act contrary to the opinion of the majority because they are supported by the approval of their neighbours. It is not difficult to be unconventional in the eyes of the world when your unconventionality is but the convention of your set.

Refecting on the high divorce rate in America as contrasted with England "American women expect to find in their husbands a perfection that English women only hope to find in their butlers

To bear failure with courage is the best proof of character that anyone can give.

The artist can within limits make what he likes of his life... It is only the artist, and maybe the criminal, who can make his own.

It must be a fault in me that I am not gravely shocked at the sins of others unless they personally affect me.