"Where any one body of educated men, of whatever denomination, are condemned indiscriminately, there must be a deficiency of information, or...of something else."

"It will, I believe, be everywhere found, that as the clergy are, or are not what they ought to be, so are the rest of the nation."

"To sit in the shade on a fine day, and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment."

"I do not want people to be agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them."

"I am excessively fond of music, but without the smallest skill or right of judging of anybody's performance."

"The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid."

"The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later, when a stranger looks at it, it moves again since it is life."

"Fashion can be bought. Style one must possess."

"Noncooks think it's silly to invest two hours' work in two minutes' enjoyment; but if cooking is evanescent, so is the ballet."

"Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving us worthy evidence of the fact."

"If you can't do what you want, do what you can."

"The world of the happy is quite different from that of the unhappy."