“When they are gay, the waves echo their gaiety; but when they are sad, then every breaker, as it rolls, seems to bring additional sadness, and to speak to us of hopelessness and of the pettiness of all our joys.”

A woman’s heart is such a complex problem – the owner thereof is often most incompetent to find the solution to this puzzle.

…but in every century, and ever since England has been what it is, an Englishman has always felt somewhat ashamed of his own emotion and of his own sympathy.

The weariest night, the longest day, sooner or later must perforce come to an end.

She, too, had worn a mask in assuming a contempt for him, whilst, as a matter of fact, she completely misunderstood him

Even the worst moments and the weariest journeys must come to an end.

Sink me! Your taylors have betrayed you! T’wood serve you better to send THEM to Madam Guillotine

She said nothing, and Sir Andrew, too, was silent, yet those two young people understood one another, as young people have a way of doing all the world over, and have done since the world began.

Odd’s fish, m’dear! The man can’t even tie his own cravat!

To love, for us men, is to clasp one woman with our arms, feeling that she lives and breathes just as we do, suffers as we do, thinks with us, loves with us, and, above all, sins with us.

We must prove to the world that we are all nincompoops

Money and titles may be hereditary,” she would say, “but brains are not,”.

Virtue is like precious odours, most fragrant when it is crushed.

In the chain of my life, there were so many links, all of which tended towards bringing me to the fulfillment of my destiny.

Look at this limp cravet. And the sad state of those cuffs. I can hardly bring myself to look upon them.

music is the most absorbing of all the arts. It absorbs the mind of the artist, whether creator or executant, to the exclusion of every other consideration outside his own immediate necessities or desires.

There is such wonderful balm in self-imposed sacrifice.

Back in 1998, he [Tom Hanks] gave the maximum amount of money that he could to Bill Clinton’s defense fund. This is a man who was against gay marriage, as was Hillary Clinton.

I’ve about decided if it wasn’t for the sex, I could be gay. Hell, then you’re just hangin’ out with your buddies.

It’s important not to lose sight of the fact people of all sorts are still putting themselves at risk. It happens to straight and gay, single and married. I have never been comfortable thinking of AIDS as something that ‘other people’ get.

When it comes to two of the big social earthquakes in the last fifty years – which are the gay movement and the women’s movement – I think there is a direct line from Kinsey to those.

I think also there was a lot of coming to terms with where I am in life, where I fit in as a gay man in America, and getting more comfortable with who I am.

I’m not the guy in the dress with the blood and the unrequited gay whatever – which, according to my psychiatrist, my gayness is a form of narcissism but you’ll have to ask him about that.

Even there, [Barack] Obama’s generals, his Pentagon, they’re telling him what to do. And the force for gay rights is inevitable. And you can say Obama will help us, and maybe he will, but only if we have something on the ground that will make him help us.

Part of me looks at the gay movement now and worries that we’re losing our individuality.