It is the confession, not the priest, that gives us absolution.

Nobody ever commits a crime without doing something stupid.

One should absorb the color of life, but one should never remember its details. Details are always vulgar.

The modern sympathy with invalids is morbid. Illness of any kind is hardly a thing to be encouraged in others.

Anybody can sympathize with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathize with a friend's success.

To get back to my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable.

When I went to America I had two secretaries, one for autographs, one for locks of hair. Within six months the one had died of writer's cramp, the other was completely bald.

The worst vice of the fanatic is his sincerity.

There is no such thing as an omen. Destiny does not send us heralds. She is too wise or too cruel for that.

Life under a good government is rarely dramatic; life under a bad government is always so.