People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading.
Yes there is a meaning; at least for me, there is one thing that matters – to set a chime of words tinkling in the minds of a few fastidious people.
The test of enjoyment is the remembrance which it leaves behind.
Style is a magic wand, and turns everything to gold that it touches.
What I like in a good author is not what he says but what he whispers.
What humbugs we are, who pretend to live for beauty, and never see the dawn!
People before the public live an imagined life in the thought of others, and flourish or feel faint as their self outside themselves grows bright or dwindles in that mirror.
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.
It is the wretchedness of being rich that you have to live with rich people.
The test of a vocation is the love of the drudgery it involves.
The great art of writing is the art of making people real to themselves with words.
Most people sell their souls, and live with a good conscience on the proceeds.
If you are losing your leisure, look out! You are losing your soul.
You cannot be both fashionable and first-rate.
Our names are labels, plainly printed on the bottled essence of our past behavior.
What is more mortifying than to feel that you have missed the plum for want of courage to shake the tree?
The world is not unkind, and reprobates are worse than their reputations.