“The exquisitely bad is as satisfying to the soul as the exquisitely good. Only the mediocre is unendurable.”

“Good judgement is the result of experience and experience the result of bad judgement.”

“when we badly want a thing, we go to hunting for good and righteous reasons for it; we give it that fine name to comfort our consciences, whereas we privately know we are only hunting for plausible ones.”

“Too much of anything is bad, but too much good whiskey is barely enough.”

“If everyone was satisfied with himself, there would be no heroes.”

“The test of any good fiction is that you should care something for the characters; the good to succeed, the bad to fail. The trouble with most fiction is that you want them all to land in hell together, as quickly as possible.”

“Kings cannot ennoble thee, thou good, great soul, for One who is higher than kings hath done that for thee; but a king can confirm thy nobility to men.”