When an acquaintance goes by I often step back from my window, not so much to spare him the effort of acknowledging me as to spare myself the embarrassment of seeing that he has not done so.

Affectation is a very good word when someone does not wish to confess to what he would none the less like to believe of himself.

People nowadays have such high hopes of America and the political conditions obtaining there that one might say the desires, at least the secret desires, of al…

Much reading has brought upon us a learned barbarism.

I am very shy. If I am flying British Airways and the airhostess asks me two questions, and I don't understand her accent - I will go hungry for the entire fli…

Association with human beings lures one into self-observation.

I pity bashful men, who feel the pain Of fancied scorn and undeserved disdain, And bear the marks upon a blushing face, Of needless shame, and self-impos'd dis…