"Whether people grow fat by joking, or whether there is something in fat itself which predisposes to a joke, I have never been quite able to determine..."

"The pure Imagination is a faculty, and not a quality."

"I have a great deal of what the world calls courage, but I have no prudence."

"Were I to be asked what it is that gives me the most intense delight, I should say a conversation with a beautiful woman."

"I am not mad; I am but mad north-north-west. When the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw."