The world is full of people whose notion of a satisfactory future is, in fact, a return to the idealised past.

He was a genius – that is to say, a man who does superlatively and without obvious effort something that most people cannot do by the uttermost exertion of their abilities.

To be a book-collector is to combine the worst characteristics of a dope fiend with those of a miser.

There is no nonsense so gross that society will not, at some time, make a doctrine of it and defend it with every weapon of communal stupidity.

Every man is wise when attacked by a mad dog; fewer when pursued by a mad woman; only the wisest survive when attacked by a mad notion.