Quotes from Max Beerbohm

The Frenchwoman threw up her hands and apostrophised heaven. To this day she believes that all the bonnes of Oxford are mad, but mad, and of a madness.

Death was incomparably the greater, the finer soul. Death was the one true bridal.

Nothing is more thrilling, thought he, than to be treated as a cully by the person you hold in the hollow of your hand.

The critic who justly admires all kinds of things simultaneously cannot love any one of them.

All fantasy should have a solid base in reality.

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

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

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

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

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

To say that a man is vain means merely that he is pleased with the effect he produces on other people.

Men prominent in life are mostly hard to converse with. They lack small-talk, and at the same time one doesn't like to confront them with their own great themes.

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

Women who love the same man have a kind of bitter freemasonry.

Of all the objects of hatred, a woman once loved is the most hateful.

Have you noticed ... there is never any third act in a nightmare? They bring you to a climax of terror and then leave you there. They are the work of poor dramatists.

To destroy is still the strongest instinct in nature.

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

A man's work is rather the needful supplement to himself than the outcome of it.

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

Death cancels all engagements.

People seem to think there is something inherently noble and virtuous in the desire to go for a walk.

No fine work can be done without concentration and self-sacrifice and toil and doubt.

The one real goal of education is to leave a person asking questions.