Playwrights From England

"It is a good rule in life never to apologize. The right sort of people do not want apologies, and the wrong sort take a mean advantage of them."

"Routine is the death to heroism."

"They gave us the language but it is only we who know how to use it"

"The image of ourselves in the minds of others is the picture of a stranger we shall never see."

"Winter draws what summer paints."

"Each play worth seeing should be watched a second time on the faces of the audience."

"It is easier to be generous than to be just."

"What we buy belongs to us only when the price is forgotten."

"To be on a pedestal is to be in a corner."

"Those we love are entitled to resent the allowances we make for them."

"Life more often teaches us how to perfect our weaknesses than how to develop our strengths."

"Blessed are those who give without remembering and take without forgetting."

"Of what help is anyone who can only be approached with the right words?"

"She is pasty and podgy, with the eyes of a currant bun, suddenly protruding with animation."

"Miss Asquith, who was probably unsurpassed in intelligence by any of her contemporaries … looked like a lovely figure in an Italian fresco."

"A brilliant woman whose perpetual wit made my head swim."

"Princess Bibesco delighted in a semi-ideal world — a world which, though having a counterpart in her experience, was to a great extent brought into being by her own temperament and, one might say, flair."

"Prince Antoine Bibesco, when asked (by her mother, Margot Asquith) why his wife didn't do more "good works", such as visiting a hospital, replied, "Dearest Margot, Elizabeth visits a hospital three times a week, with the result that the lame walk, the blind see, and the dumb would speak if they could get a word in edgeways.""

"I always felt a deep malaise in her — her writing and the fluctuations of her brilliant and esoteic conversation led her everywhere but to self-satisfaction."

"My soul has gained the freedom of the night."

"Perfect moments don't turn into half-hours."

"Death is part of this life and not of the next."

"To regret your sins of commission as much as your sins of omission is to prove yourself a most unworthy sinner."

"Our losses should frequently be put on the credit side."

"We learn nothing by being right."

"We are bound to those we love by their imperfections — their perfections help us to explain them to others."

"One swallow maketh not summer."

"There is no fire without some smoke."

"Out of Gods blessing into the warme Sunne."

"The greatest Clerkes be not the wisest men."

"Many hands make light warke."

"Small pitchers have wyde eares."

"Three may keepe counsayle, if two be away."

"The grey mare is the better horse."

"Might have gone further and have fared worse."

"Though chaunge be no robbry."

"You stand in your owne light."

"A peny for your thought."

"A woman hath nine lives like a cat."

"A fooles bolt is soone shot."

"Love me litle, love me long."

"All is not Gospell that thou doest speake."

"Burnt child fire dredth."

"New brome swepth cleene."

"This wonder (as wonders last) lasted nine daies."

"I pray thee let me and my fellow have A haire of the dog that bit us last night."

"She frieth in her owne grease."

"By hooke or crooke."

"One good turne asketh another."

"Who is worse shod than the shoemaker's wife?"