People Seem To Think There

Not That I Had Any Special Reason For Hating School. Strange As It May Seem To My Readers, I Was Not Unpopular There. I Was A Modest, Good-humoured Boy. It Is Oxford That Has Made Me Insufferable.

The Literary Gift Is A Mere Accident - Is As Often Bestowed On Idiots Who Have Nothing To Say Worth Hearing As It Is Denied To Strenuous Sages.

Has The Gift Of Laughter Been Withdrawn From Me? I Protest That I Do Still, At The Age Of Forty-seven, Laugh Often And Loud And Long. But Not, I Believe, So Long And Loud And Often As In My Less Smiling Youth. And I Am Proud, Nowadays, Of Laughing, And Grateful To Any One Who Makes Me Laugh. That Is A Bad Sign. I No Longer Take Laughter As A Matter Of Course.

Every One, Even The Richest And Most Munificent Of Men, Pays Much By Cheque More Light-heartedly Than He Pays Little In Specie.

No Roman Ever Was Able To Say, 'i Dined Last Night With The Borgias'.