The great things of life are what they seem to be, and for that reason, strange as it may sound to you, are often difficult to interpret. But the little things of life are symbols. We receive our bitter lessons most easily through them.

To call an artist morbid because he deals with morbidity as his subject-matter is as silly as if one called Shakespeare mad because he wrote 'King Lear.

Those who read the symbol do so at their peril.

There is something in that name that seems to inspire absolute confidence. I pity any poor woman whose husband is not called Ernest.

The blood-stain has been much admired by tourists and others, and cannot be removed. That is all nonsense, cried Washington Otis; Pinkerton's Champion Stain Remover and Paragon Detergent will clean it up in no time, and before the terrified housekeeper could interfere, he had fallen upon his knees, and was rapidly scouring the floor with a small stick of what looked like a black cosmetic. In a few moments no trace of the blood-stain could be seen.

The man who sees both sides of a question is a man who sees absolutely nothing.

It is only an auctioneer who should admire all schools of art.

I am always astonishing myself. It is the only thing that makes life worth living.

To test reality we must see it on the tight rope. When the verities become acrobats, we can judge them.

I have always been of opinion that a man who desires to get married should know either everything or nothing. 

The truth is rarely pure and never simple.  Modern life would be very tedious if it were either, and modern literature a complete impossibility! Jack.  That wouldn't be at all a bad thing. Algernon.  Literary criticism is not your forte, my dear fellow.  Don't try it.  You should leave that to people who haven't been at a University.  They do it so well in the daily papers. 

He was dreadfully short-sighted, and there was no pleasure in taking a husband who never sees anything.