A villain must be a thing of power, handled with delicacy and grace. He must be wicked enough to excite our aversion, strong enough to arouse our fear, human enough to awaken some transient gleam of sympathy. We must triumph in his downfall, yet not barbarously nor with contempt, and the close of his career must be in harmony with all its previous development.

The pessimist is seldom an agitating individual. His creed breeds indifference to others, and he does not trouble himself to thrust his views upon the unconvinced.

The clear-sighted do not rule the world, but they sustain and console it.

It is not what we learn in conversation that enriches us. It is the elation that comes of swift contact with tingling currents of thought.

In the stress of modern life, how little room is left for that most comfortable vanity that whispers in our ears that failures are not faults! Now we are taught from infancy that we must rise or fall upon our own merits; that vigilance wins success, and incapacity means ruin.

There is nothing in the world so enjoyable as a thorough-going monomania...

The tourist may complain of other tourists, but he would be lost without them.

Humor distorts nothing, and only false gods are laughed off their pedestals.

It is in his pleasure that a man really lives; it is from his leisure that he constructs the true fabric of self.

It is in his pleasure that a man really lives it is from his leisure that he constructs the true fabric of self.