The public seldom forgive twice.

It has taken me nearly twenty years of studied self-restraint, aided by the natural decay of my faculties, to make myself dull enough to be accepted as a serious person by the British public; and I am not sure that I am not still regarded as a suspicious character in some quarters.

There is not a more mean, stupid, dastardly, pitiless, selfish, spiteful, envious, ungrateful animal than the Public. It is the greatest of cowards, for it is afraid of itself.

A man in public life expects to be sneered at -- it is the fault of his elevated situation, and not of himself.

Deeply earnest and thoughtful people stand on shaky footing with the public.