"Every author, however modest, keeps a most outrageous vanity chained like a madman in the padded cell of his breast."

"It is the wretchedness of being rich that you have to live with rich people."

"There are few sorrows in which a good income is of no avail."

"What is more mortifying than to feel that you have missed the plum for want of courage to shake the tree?"

"The indefatigable pursuit of an unattainable perfection, even though it consists in nothing more than the pounding of an old piano, is what alone gives meaning to our life on this unavailing star."

"How many of our daydreams would darken into nightmares if there seemed any danger of their coming true!"

"There are two things to aim at in life: first, to get what you want; and, after that, to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second."

"Charming people live up to the very edge of their charm, and behave as outrageously as the world lets them."

"Style is a magic wand, and turns everything to gold that it touches."

"Hearts that are delicate and kind and tongues that are neither - these make the finest company in the world."

"An improper mind is a perpetual feast!"

"Happiness is a wine of the rarest vintage, and seems insipid to a vulgar taste."

"There is one thing that matters / to set a chime of words tinkling in the minds of a few fastidious people."