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.

First, cut out all the wisdom, then cut out all the adjectives.

It's always difficult to make conversation with a drunk, and there's no denying it, the sober are at a disadvantage with him.

The ideas for stories that thronged my brain would not let me rest till I had got rid of them by writing them.

There's nothing the world loves more than a ready-made description which they can hang on to a man, and so save themselves all trouble in future.

Oh, it's always the same,' she sighed, 'if you want men to behave well to you, you must be beastly to them; if you treat them decently they make you suffer for it.

In the conduct of life we make use of deliberation to justify ourselves in doing what we want to do.