It would have been a good dinner, if The soup had been as warm as the champagne or The beef had been as rare as the service or The brandy had been as old as the woman on his left or The woman on his right had been as Hansom as the cab he took home.

Life is too short to be small.

If Gladstone fell into the Thames, that would be a misfortune; and if anybody pulled him out, that, I suppose, would be a calamity.

Many thanks: I shall lose no time in reading it.

Any one detail, followed through to its source, will usually reveal the general state of readiness of the whole organization.

The man in charge must concern himself with details. If he does not consider them important, neither will his subordinates. Yet 'the devil is in the details.' …

At every date he goes out and sits in every section of the hall to listen to the sound. And if it isn't right, even in the last row, I hear about it and we mak…