For men, as a rule, love is but an episode which takes place among the other affairs of the day, and the emphasis laid on it in novels gives it an importance which is untrue to life. There are few men to whom it is the most important thing in the world, and they are not the very interesting ones; even women, with whom the subject is of paramount interest, have a contempt for them.

But what is criticism? Criticism is purely destructive; anyone can destroy, but not everyone can build up.

We who are of mature age seldom suspect how unmercifully and yet with what insight the very young judge us.

If it is necessary sometimes to lie to others, it is always despicable to lie to oneself.

Illusions are like umbrellas - you no sooner get them than you lose them, and the loss always leaves a little painful wound.

You are not angry with people when you laugh at them. Humour teaches tolerance, and the humorist, with a smile and perhaps a sigh, is more likely to shrug his shoulders than to condemn.

As lovers, the difference between men and women is that women can love all day long, but men only at times.