Good Sense About Trivialities Is Better Than

The Loveliest Face In All The World Will Not Please You If You See It Suddenly Eye To Eye, At A Distance Of Half An Inch From Your Own.

Improvisation Is The Essence Of Good Talk. Heaven Defend Us From The Talker Who Doles Out Things Prepared For Us; But Let Heaven Not Less Defend Us From The Beautiful Spontaneous Writer Who Puts His Trust In The Inspiration Of The Moment.

Few, As I Have Said, Are The Humorists Who Can Induce This State. To Master And Dissolve Us, To Give Us The Joy Of Being Worn Down And Tired Out With Laughter, Is A Success To Be Won By No Man Save In Virtue Of A Rare Staying-power. Laughter Becomes Extreme Only If It Be Consecutive. There Must Be No Pauses For Recovery. Touch-and-go Humour, However Happy, Is Not Enough. The Jester Must Be Able To Grapple His Theme And Hang On To It, Twisting It This Way And That, And Making It Yield Magically All Manner Of Strange And Precious Things.

I Need No Dictionary Of Quotations To Remind Me That The Eyes Are The Windows Of The Soul.

The Past Is A Work Of Art, Free Of Irrelevancies And Loose Ends.