Its a toss-up when you decide to leave the beaten track. Many are called, few are chosen.

I would sooner read a time-table or a catalogue than nothing at all. They are much more entertaining than half the novels that are written.

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.

Art for art's sake makes no more sense than gin for gin's sake.

One does not really feel much grief at other people's sorrows; one tries, and puts on a melancholy face, thinking oneself brutal for not caring more; but one cannot and it is better, for if one grieved too deeply at other people's tears, life would be unendurable; and every man has sufficient sorrows of his own without taking to heart his neighbour's.

The humour of Dostoievsky is the humour of a barloafer who ties a kettle to a dog's tail.

It does the heart good to look at you.