“If you value a man’s regard, strive with him. As to liking, you like your newspaper – and despise it.”

There are certain persons for whom pure Truth is a poison.

People are what you make them. A scornful look turns into a complete fool a man of average intelligence.

Without a family, man, alone in the world, trembles with the cold.

No one can be profoundly original who does not avoid eccentricity.

Conversation would be vastly improved by the constant use of four simple words: I do not know.

We owe to the Middle Ages the two worst inventions of humanity – romantic love and gunpowder.

Modesty and unselfishness – these are the virtues which men praise – and pass by.

If men could regard the events of their own lives with more open minds, they would frequently discover that they did not really desire the things they failed to obtain.

In literature as in love, we are astonished at what is chosen by others.

A happy marriage is a long conversation which always seems too short.

The really great novel tends to be the exact negative of its author’s life.

Business is a combination of war and sport.

The most important quality in a leader is that of being acknowledged as such. All leaders whose fitness is questioned are clearly lacking in force.

Self-pity comes so naturally to all of us.

To be witty is not enough. One must possess sufficient wit to avoid having too much of it.

An artist must be a reactionary. He has to stand out against the tenor of the age and not go flopping along.

I despise politics. There is no room for it in a company. My life is going to be way too short to deal with that.

There is a story of an Oxford student who once remarked, “I despise all Americans, but have never met one I didn’t like.”

To my disappointment I now realized that to know all is not to forgive all. It is to despise everybody.

Foolish the doctor who despises the knowledge acquired by the ancients.

Of all our infirmities, the most savage is to despise our being.

We do not despise all those who have vices, but we do despise those that have no virtue.

First of all, Mets fans despise me.

Genius can never despise labour.