When I sit down to write a novel I do not at all know, and I do not very much care, how it is to end.
What man thinks of changing himself so as to suit his wife?
Caveat emptor is the only motto going, and the worst proverb that ever came from the dishonest stony-hearted Rome.
Gentlemen lacking substantial sympathy with their leader found it to be comfortable to deceive themselves, and raise their hearts at the same time by the easy enthusiasm of noise.
Success is a poison that should only be taken late in life and then only in small doses.
I have sometimes thought that there is no being so venomous, so bloodthirsty as a professed philanthropist.
Heroes in books should be so much better than heroes got up for the world’s common wear and tear.
As will so often be the case when a men has a pen in his hand. It is like a club or sledge-hammer, in using which, either for defence or attack, a man can hardly measure the strength of the blows he gives.
Speeches easy to young speakers are generally very difficult to old listeners.
An enemy might at any time become a friend, but while an enemy was an enemy he should be trodden on and persecuted.
The sober devil can hide his cloven hoof; but when the devil drinks he loses his cunning and grows honest.
But as the clerical pretensions are more exacting than all others, being put forward with an assertion that no answer is possible without breach of duty and sin, so are they more galling.
Then Lady Chiltern argued the matter on views directly opposite to those which she had put forward when discussing the matter with her husband.
It is admitted that a novel can hardly be made interesting or successful without love? It is necessary because the passion is one which interests or has interested all. Everyone feels it, has felt it, or expects to feel it.
When a man wants to write a book full of unassailable facts, he always goes to the British Museum.
It is my purpose to disclose the mystery at once, and to ask you to look for your interest, – should you choose to go on with my chronicle, – simply in the conduct of my persons, during this disclosure to others.
There’s nothing like going on with a thing.
The mind of the thinker and the student is driven to admit, though it be awe-struck by apparent injustice, that this inequality is the work of God. Make all men equal to-day, and God has so created them that they shall be all unequal to-morrow.
If we wish ourselves to be high, we should treat that which is over us as high.
Credit is a matter so subtle in its essence, that, as it may be obtained almost without reason, so, without reason, may it be made to melt away.