I like a person who knows his own mind and sticks to it; who sees at once what is to be done in given circumstances and does it. He does not beat about the bush for difficulties or excuses, but goes the shortest and most effectual way to work to attain his own ends, or to accomplish a useful object.

I like a friend the better for having faults that one can talk about.

Silence is one great art of conversation.

Familiarity confounds all traits of distinction; interest and prejudice take away the power of judging.

Or have I passed my time in pouring words like water into empty sieves, rolling a stone up a hill and then down again, trying to prove an argument in the teeth of facts, and looking for causes in the dark, and not finding them?

One shining quality lends a lustre to another, or hides some glaring defect.

I have a much greater ambition to be the best racket player than the best prose writer.