“If other people are going to talk, conversation becomes impossible.”

“Oh, well, if you want original conversations, you'd better go and talk to yourself.”

“People do not become great by doing great things. They do great things because they are great.”

“HIGGINSI find that the moment I let a woman make friends with me, she becomes jealous, exacting, suspicious, and a damned nuisance. I find that the moment I let myself make friends with a woman, I become selfish and tyrannical. Women upset everything. When you let them into your life, you find that the woman is driving at one thing and you're driving at another.PICKERINGAt what, for example?HIGGINSOh, Lord knows! I suppose the woman wants to live her own life; and the man wants to live his; and each tries to drag the other on to the wrong track. One wants to go north and the other south; and the result is that both have to go east, though they both hate the east wind.”

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

“Most people go to their grave with their music inside them.”

“I often quote myself. It adds spice to my conversation.”