I describe not men, but manners; not an individual, but a species.

Wine is a turncoat; first a friend and then an enemy.

Handsome is that handsome does.

Love and scandal are the best sweeteners of tea.

Make money your god, and it will plague you like the devil.

There is not in the universe a more ridiculous, nor a more contemptible animal, than a proud clergyman.

The hounds all join in glorious cry, / The huntsman winds his horn: / And a-hunting we will go.

Most men like in women what is most opposite their own characters.

When children are doing nothing, they are doing mischief.

A good countenance is a letter of recommendation.

Neither great poverty nor great riches will hear reason

Buying a book is not about obtaining a possession, but about securing a portal.

Genius is the ability to reduce the complicated to the simple.

The supreme blossoming of character lies (or reside) in renounciation (or renuncement) and abnegation of self ("abnégation de soi", Fr.)

As long as you are happy with your life, you'll have less problems.

Work hard. Someone's always watching.

She smiled, a moving childish smile that was like all the lost youth in the world.

And I certainly won't lay out areas of my life that I think are just private.

I think movies are getting dumber, actually. Where it used to be 50/50, now it's 3% good, 97% stupid.

The key word for my book The Woman in Black is unsettling... because you're not terrified all of the time or even frightened, but you're unsettled and once you're unsettled, then the door's open.

I mean, the truth of the matter is, I like the failures as much as I like the successes, it's only the world that doesn't like the failures.