The great critic ... must be a philosopher, for from philosophy he will learn serenity, impartiality, and the transitoriness of human things. - William Somerset Maugham

She had a pretty gift for quotation, which is a serviceable substitute for wit.

How strange was the relation between parents and children! When they were small the parents doted on them, passed through agonies of apprehension at each childish ailment, and the children clung to their parents with love and adoration; a few years passed, the children grew up, and persons not of their kin were more important to their happiness than father or mother. Indifference displaced the blind and instinctive love of the past. Their meetings were a source of boredom and irritation. Distracted once at the thought of a month's separation they were able now to look forward with equanimity to being parted for years.

Money is the string with which a sardonic destiny directs the motions of its puppets.