Female beauty is an important Minor Sacrament which cannot be received too often; I am not at all sure that neglect of it does not constitute a sin of some kind.

Extraordinary people survive under the most terrible circumstances and they become more extraordinary because of it.

There is no nonsense so gross that society will not, at some time, make a doctrine of it and defend it with every weapon of communal stupidity.

The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.

I cannot imagine any boy of spirit who would not be delighted to play a drunkard even to vomiting in front of his Sunday school. Indeed, the vomiting might be the chief attraction of the role.

The world is full of people whose notion of a satisfactory future is, in fact, a return to the idealized past.

A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine building should be seen by morning light, at noon and by moonlight.

A man must be obedient to the promptings of his innermost heart.

Art is wine and experience is the brandy we distill from it.

Conversation in its true meaning isn't all wagging the tongue; sometimes it is a deeply shared silence.

The dog is a yes-animal. Very popular with people who can't afford a yes man.

We should bloom like a flower without reservation or restriction, but with all our energy, power, and great love for this world.

The night is what allows us to see the stars. Darkness is nothing less than a thousand sunlights.

Ambition is a funny thing: it creeps in when you least expect it and keeps you moving, even when you think you want to stay put

The first thing to be done by a biographer in estimating character is to examine the stubs of the victim's cheque books.

It's annoying when people tag my name in their conversation with someone else [on Twitter.]

The test of literature is, I suppose, whether we ourselves live more intensely for the reading of it.

You live and you learn.

I have a lot of compact discs. I need them for radio play and convenience. Many bands and artists I am a fan of don't always release their work on vinyl, so I take what they feel like giving me.

Champagne is the only drink that leaves a woman still beautiful after drinking it.

Tension is a habit. Relaxing is a habit. Bad habits can be broken, good habits formed.