The most poetical thing in the world is not being sick.

There again," said Syme irritably, "what is there poetical about being in revolt? You might as well say that it is poetical to be sea-sick. Being sick is a revolt. Both being sick and being rebellious may be the wholesome thing on certain desperate occasions; but I'm hanged if I can see why they are poetical. Revolt in the abstract is – revolting. It's mere vomiting.

The trouble about always trying to preserve the health of the body is that it is so difficult to do without destroying the health of the mind.

White founts falling in the courts of the sun, / And the Soldan of Byzantium is smiling as they run.

There is a great deal of difference between an eager man who wants to read a book, and a tired man who wants a book to read.

The pure modernist is merely a snob; he cannot bear to be a month behind the fashion.