Max Beerbohm Quotes

"Of all the objects of hatred, a woman once loved is the most hateful."
- Max Beerbohm
(Related: Hatred, Woman)

"One might well say that mankind is divisible into two great classes: hosts and guests."
- Max Beerbohm
(Related: Guests, Mankind)

"Only mediocrity can be trusted to be always at its best."
- Max Beerbohm
(Related: Mediocrity)

"People are either born hosts or born guests."
- Max Beerbohm
(Related: People, Guests)

"People who insist on telling their dreams are among the terrors of the breakfast table."
- Max Beerbohm
(Related: Dreams, People)

"Some people are born to lift heavy weights, some are born to juggle golden balls."
- Max Beerbohm
(Related: People)

"You will find that the woman who is really kind to dogs is always one who has failed to inspire sympathy in men."
- Max Beerbohm
(Related: Men, Sympathy, Dogs, Will, Woman)

"When hospitality becomes an art it loses its very soul."
- Max Beerbohm
(Related: Art, Soul, Hospitality)

"It is easier to confess a defect than to claim a quality."
- Max Beerbohm
(Related: Quality)

"To mankind in general Macbeth and Lady Macbeth stand out as the supreme type of all that a host and hostess should not be."
- Max Beerbohm
(Related: Lady, Mankind)

"To give an accurate and exhaustive account of that period would need a far less brilliant pen than mine."
- Max Beerbohm
(Related: Pen)

"To destroy is still the strongest instinct in nature."
- Max Beerbohm
(Related: Nature, Instinct)

"There is much to be said for failure. It is much more interesting than success."
- Max Beerbohm
(Related: Success, Failure)

"The Non-Conformist Conscience makes cowards of us all."
- Max Beerbohm
(Related: Conscience, Cowards)

"The delicate balance between modesty and conceit is popularity."
- Max Beerbohm
(Related: Balance, Conceit, Modesty, Popularity)

"Nobody ever died of laughter."
- Max Beerbohm
(Related: Laughter)

"We must stop talking about the American dream and start listening to the dreams of Americans."
- Max Beerbohm
(Related: Dreams, American, Americans, Listening, Talking)

"To say that a man is vain means merely that he is pleased with the effect he produces on other people."
- Max Beerbohm
(Related: People, Effect, Man)

"You will find my last words in the blue folder."
- Max Beerbohm
(Related: Will, Words)

"Incongruity is the mainspring of laughter."
- Max Beerbohm
(Related: Laughter)

"No Roman ever was able to say, 'I dined last night with the Borgias'."
- Max Beerbohm
(Related: Night)

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

"I need no dictionary of quotations to remind me that the eyes are the windows of the soul."
- Max Beerbohm
(Related: Soul, Eyes, Quotations, Windows)

"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."
- Max Beerbohm
(Related: Genius, Gods, Affliction, Man, Spiritual)

"Humility is a virtue, and it is a virtue innate in guests."
- Max Beerbohm
(Related: Virtue, Guests, Humility)

"Good sense about trivialities is better than nonsense about things that matter."
- Max Beerbohm
(Related: Nonsense)

"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."
- Max Beerbohm
(Related: Personality)

"Anything that is worth doing has been done frequently. Things hitherto undone should be given, I suspect, a wide berth."
- Max Beerbohm
(Related: Worth)

"All fantasy should have a solid base in reality."
- Max Beerbohm
(Related: Fantasy, Reality)

"A hundred eyes were fixed on her, and half as many hearts lost to her."
- Max Beerbohm
(Related: Eyes)

"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."
- Max Beerbohm
(Related: Nature, Law, Man, Obvious)

"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."
- Max Beerbohm
(Related: Men, Genius, People, Character, Deep, Instinct, Judges, Quick, Thinking)

"Most women are not as young as they are painted."
- Max Beerbohm
(Related: Women)

"No fine work can be done without concentration and self-sacrifice and toil and doubt."
- Max Beerbohm
(Related: Work, Doubt, Self)