The great critic ... must be a philosopher, for from philosophy he will learn serenity, impartiality, and the… — William Somerset Maugham

Old age is ready to undertake tasks that youth shirked because they would take too long.

We are not the same persons this year as last ; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person.

I have been forced to conclude from this that we know our friends by their defects rather than by their merits.