Always, Sir, set a high value on spontaneous kindness.

Cucumber should be well sliced, dressed with pepper and vinegar, and then thrown out.

The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.

Curiosity is one of the most permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect.

Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not.

When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.

Classical quotation is the parole of literary men all over the world.

A man who uses a great many words to express his meaning is like a bad marksman who, instead of aiming a single stone at an object, takes up a handful and throws at it in hopes he may hit.

There are minds so impatient of inferiority that their gratitude is a species of revenge, and they return benefits, not because recompense is a pleasure, but because obligation is a pain.

When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.

He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will waste his life in fruitless efforts.

If you are going to think about your problems, by all means let your thoughts focus on the solutions to them. Worrying and crying have never solved a single problem on earth.

The bottle of red brush on a white table gleamed throughout the remaining years of my childhood as the sign of what was possible there.

You can't be both a painter and a musician and master anything. You can't. And live a life.

Rule books are paper - they will not cushion a sudden meeting of stone and metal.

There is no accident so unfortunate but wise men will make some advantage of it, nor any so entirely fortunate but fools may turn it to their own prejudice.

To prove religious faith by human reason is rationalistic claptrap.

The worst thing you can do to a dictator is laugh at him.

The huge problem in our society is the enormous ignorance of the ideas that underlie modern art.

Measure me while I live - after it will be too late.