You can do something with talent, but nothing with genius...

All I can say about my mind is that, like a fire carefully laid by a good housemaid, it is one that any match will light...

Haunted from my early youth by the transitoriness and pathos of life, I was aware that it is not enough to say “I am doing no harm,” I ought to be testing myself daily, and asking myself what I am really achieving.

I do not say I was ever what I would call “plain,” but I have the sort of face that bores me when I see it on other people.

Till I see money spent on the betterment of man instead of on his idleness and destruction, I shall not believe in any perfect form of government...

He’s very clever, but sometimes his brains go to his head.

Rich men’s houses are seldom beautiful, rarely comfortable, and never original. It is a constant source of surprise to people of moderate means to observe how little a big fortune contributes to Beauty.

There are big men, men of intellect, intellectual men, men of talent and men of action; but the great man is difficult to find, and it needs – apart from discernment – a certain greatness to find him.

My father’s nature turned out no waste product; he had none of that useless stuff in him that lies in heaps near factories. He took his own happiness with him.

The Bible tells us to forgive our enemies, not our friends.