Max Beerbohm Quotes

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

By: Max Beerbohm

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

By: Max Beerbohm

One might well say that mankind is divisible into two great classes: hosts and guests... view

By: Max Beerbohm

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

By: Max Beerbohm

People are either born hosts or born guests... view

By: Max Beerbohm

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

By: Max Beerbohm

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

By: Max Beerbohm

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

By: Max Beerbohm

When hospitality becomes an art it loses its very soul... view

By: Max Beerbohm

It is easier to confess a defect than to claim a quality... view

By: Max Beerbohm

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

By: Max Beerbohm

To give an accurate and exhaustive account of that period would need a far less brilliant pen than mine... view

By: Max Beerbohm

To destroy is still the strongest instinct in nature... view

By: Max Beerbohm

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

By: Max Beerbohm

The Non-Conformist Conscience makes cowards of us all... view

By: Max Beerbohm

The delicate balance between modesty and conceit is popularity... view

By: Max Beerbohm

Nobody ever died of laughter... view

By: Max Beerbohm

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

By: Max Beerbohm

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

By: Max Beerbohm

You will find my last words in the blue folder... view

By: Max Beerbohm

Incongruity is the mainspring of laughter... view

By: Max Beerbohm

No Roman ever was able to say, 'I dined last night with the Borgias'... view

By: Max Beerbohm

I was a modest, good-humoured boy. It is Oxford that has made me insufferable... view

By: Max Beerbohm

I need no dictionary of quotations to remind me that the eyes are the windows of the soul... view

By: Max Beerbohm

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... view

By: Max Beerbohm

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

By: Max Beerbohm

Good sense about trivialities is better than nonsense about things that matter... view

By: Max Beerbohm

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... view

By: Max Beerbohm

Anything that is worth doing has been done frequently. Things hitherto undone should be given, I suspect, a wide berth... view

By: Max Beerbohm

All fantasy should have a solid base in reality... view

By: Max Beerbohm

A hundred eyes were fixed on her, and half as many hearts lost to her... view

By: Max Beerbohm

It seems to be a law of nature that no man, unless he has some obvious physical deformity, ever is loth to sit for his portrait... view

By: Max Beerbohm

Men of genius are not quick judges of character. Deep thinking and high imagining blunt that trivial instinct by which you and I size people up... view

By: Max Beerbohm

Most women are not as young as they are painted... view

By: Max Beerbohm

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

By: Max Beerbohm