Max Beerbohm

I utilise all my spare moments. I've read twenty-seven of the Hundred Best Books. I collect ferns.

Only mediocrity can be trusted to be always at its best. Genius must always have lapses proportionate to its triumphs.

When hospitality becomes an art it loses its very soul.

You will find that the woman who is really kind to dogs is always one who has failed to inspire sympathy in men.

As a teacher, as a propagandist, Mr. Shaw is no good at all, even in his own generation. But as a personality, he is immortal.

To destroy is still the strongest instinct in nature.

People who insist on telling their dreams are among the terrors of the breakfast table.

We must stop talking about the American dream and start listening to the dreams of Americans.

Some people are born to lift heavy weights some are born to juggle golden balls.

Humility is a virtue and it is a virtue innate in guests.

To mankind in general Macbeth and Lady Macbeth stand out as the supreme type of all that a host and hostess should not be.

Only mediocrity can be trusted to be always at its best.

I have known no man of genius who had not to pay in some affliction or defect either physical or spiritual for what the gods had given him.

The past is a work of art free of irrelevancies and loose ends.

To give and then not feel that one has given is the very best of all ways of giving.

The dullard's envy of brilliant men is always assuaged by the suspicion that they will come to a bad end.

There is much to be said for failure. It is more interesting than success.

You cannot make a man by standing a sheep on its hind legs. But by standing a flock of sheep in that position you can make a crowd of men.