You must not suppose, because I am a man of letters, that I never tried to earn an honest living.

Martyrdom, sir, is what these people like: it is the only way in which a man can become famous without ability.

[Chess] is a foolish expedient for making idle people believe they are doing something very clever, when they are only wasting their time.

The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that's the essence of inhumanity.

Have I put the matter too strongly? Possibly I have; but when all the world has gone a-slumming I wish to speak a word of sympathy for the man who succeeds-the…

I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life.

People who refuse to rest honorably on their laurels when they reach 'retirement' age seem very admirable to me.