Are we savages or what?

I am by nature an optimist and by intellectual conviction a pessimist.

I have a confession to make. The love affair of my life has been with the Greek language. I have now reached the age when it has occurred to me that I may have read some books for the last time. I suddenly thought that there are books I cannot bear not to read again before I die. One that stands out a mile is Homer's Iliad.

He who rides the sea of the Nile must have sails woven of patience.

I am here; and here is nowhere in particular.

Which is better--to have laws and agree, or to hunt and kill?

Among the virtues and vices that make up the British character, we have one vice, at least, that Americans ought to view with sympathy. For they appear to be the only people who share it with us. I mean our worship of the antique. I do not refer to beauty or even historical association. I refer to age, to a quantity of years.