The best men are not consistent in good-- why should the worst men be consistent in evil.

Our words are giants when they do us an injury, and dwarfs when they do us a service.

The evening advanced. The shadows lengthened. The waters of the lake grew pitchy black. The gliding of the ghostly swans became rare and more rare.

My hour for tea is half-past five, and my buttered toast waits for nobody.

The books - the generous friends who met me without suspicion - the merciful masters who never used me ill!

Let the music speak to us of tonight, in a happier language than our own.

We had our breakfasts--whatever happens in a house, robbery or murder, it doesn't matter, you must have your breakfast.

Any woman who is sure of her own wits, is a match, at any time, for a man who is not sure of his own temper.

I have always held the old-fashioned opinion that the primary object of work of fiction should be to tell a story.

Your tears come easy, when you're young, and beginning the world. Your tears come easy, when you're old, and leaving it. I burst out crying.

Pedants, who have the least knowledge to be proud of, are impelled most by vanity.

The mind is not designed to grasp the laws of probability, even though the laws rule the universe.

The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.

A perpetual holiday is a good working definition of Hell.

In dialogue, there is opposition, yes, but no head-on collision. Smashing heads does not open minds.

I don't see why I should bow my head when I could hold it high, or place it in the hands of my enemies when I can defeat them.

People think that boxing is all about how hard you can hit your opponent. It's not. Boxing is about how hard a hit you can take and keep going.

I believe in censorship. I made a fortune out of it.

A true master of politics is able to calculate, down to the smallest fraction, the advantages to which he may put his very faults.

Not every day can be an easy one, nor every day fully happy; but even a day of tough going and difficulty can be a good day.

Time was when genius was more precious than gold, but now to have nothing is monstrous barbarism.