It is bad enough to know the past; it would be intolerable to know the future.

It is one of the defects of my character that I cannot altogether dislike anyone who makes me laugh.

A writer need not devour a whole sheep in order to know what mutton tastes like, but he must at least eat a chop. Unless he gets his facts right, his imagination will lead him into all kinds of nonsense, and the facts he is most likely to get right are the facts of his own experience.

It is salutary to train oneself to be no more affected by censure than by praise.

She plunged into a sea of platitudes, and with the powerful breast stroke of a channel swimmer made her confident way towards the white cliffs of the obvious.

Beauty is something wonderful and strange that the artist fashions out of the chaos of the world in the torment of his soul.

No woman is worth more than a fiver unless you're in love with her. Then she's worth all she costs you.