Civilization is merely an advance in taste: accepting, all the time, nicer things, and rejecting nasty ones.

The principle of fashion is . . . the principle of the kaleidoscope. A new year can only bring us a new combination of the same elements; and about once in so often we go back and begin again.

Funny how people despise platitudes, when they are usually the truest thing going. A thing has to be pretty true before it gets to be a platitude.

Nothing makes people so worthy of compliments as receiving them. One is more delightful for being told one is delightful -- just as one is more angry for being told one is angry.

Simplicity is an acquired taste. Mankind, left free, instinctively complicates life.

Simplicity is an acquired taste. Mankind, left free, instinctively complicates life.