Quotations and Poems

» Acquaintance » “The mere process of growing old together will make the slightest acquaintance seem a bosom friend.”

» Acquaintance » “We need two kinds of acquaintances, one to complain to, while to the others we boast.”

» Affection » “A slight touch of friendly malice and amusement towards those we love keeps our affections for them from turning flat.”

» Autobiography » “What pursuit is more elegant than that of collecting the ignominies of our nature and transfixing them for show, each on the bright pin of a polished phrase?”

» Baldness » “There is more felicity on the far side of baldness than young men can possibly imagine.”

» Bestsellers » “A best-seller is the golden touch of mediocre talent.”

» Bigotry » “How it infuriates a bigot, when he is forced to drag out his dark convictions!”

» Books and Reading » “People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading.”

» Books and Reading » “Then I though of reading — the nice and subtle happiness of reading … this joy not dulled by age, this polite and unpunishable vice, this selfish, serene, lifelong intoxication.”

» Charm » “Charming people live up to the very edge of their charm, and behave as outrageously as the world lets them.”

» Children » “What’s more enchanting than the voices of young people, when you can’t hear what they say?”

» Conscience » “We grow with years more fragile in body, but morally stutter, and can throw off the chill of a bad conscience almost at once.”

» Decay » “There are people who, like houses, are beautiful in dilapidation.”

» Dreams » “How many of our daydreams would darken into nightmares, were there a danger of their coming true!”

» Education » “All my life, as down an abyss without a bottom. I have been pouring van loads of information into that vacancy of oblivion I call my mind.”

» Fashion » “He who goes against the fashion is himself its slave.”

» Generations » “The old know what they want; the young are sad and bewildered.”

» Goals » “There are two things to aim at in life: first, to get what you want; and, after that, to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second.”

» God » “Those who set out to serve both God and Mammon soon discover that there isn’t a God.”

» Gossip » “How awful to reflect that what people say of us is true!”

» Happiness » “Happiness is a wine of the rarest vintage, and seems insipid to a vulgar taste.”

» Ideals and Idealism » “When they come downstairs from their Ivory Towers, idealists are very apt to walk straight into the gutter.”

» Joy » “What joy can the years bring half so sweet as the unhappiness they’ve taken away?”

» Leisure » “If you are losing your leisure, look out! You are losing your soul.”

» Lies and Lying » “If you want to be thought a liar, always tell the truth.”

» Life and Living » “There is one thing that matters — to set a chime of words tinkling in the minds of a few fastidious people.”

» Meaning of Life » “Those who talk on the razor-edge of double-meanings pluck the rarest blooms from the precipice on either side.”

» Night » “Thank Heaven, the sun has gone in, and I don’t have to go out and enjoy it.”

» Perfection » “The indefatigable pursuit of an unattainable perfection –even though nothing more than the pounding of an old piano –is what alone gives a meaning to our life on this unavailing star.”

» Preachers and Preaching » “That we should practice what we preach is generally admitted; but anyone who preaches what he and his hearers practice must incur the gravest moral disapprobation.”

» Riches » “The wretchedness of being rich is that you live with rich people. To suppose, as we all suppose, that we could be rich and not behave as the rich behave, is like supposing that we could drink all day and stay sober.”

» Soul » “Most people sell their souls, and live with a good conscience on the proceeds.”

» Vocation » “The test of a vocation is the love of the drudgery it involves.”

» Writers and Writing » “What I like in a good author isn’t what he says, but what he whispers.”

» Writers and Writing » “Whiskey has killed more men than bullets, but most men would rather be full of whiskey than bullets. What I like in a good author is not what he says, but what he whispers.”

» Youth » “Don’t laugh at youth for his affectations; he is only trying on one face after another to find his own.”

» Youth » “Don’t let young people tell you their aspirations; when they drop them they will drop you.”

» Youth » “The denunciation of the young is a necessary part of the hygiene of older people, and greatly assists the circulation of their blood.”