A man, too sensitive to the rights and the charms of others, is in grave danger of futility.

Either he will become a dilettante, which is the French way, or he will take to drink and mystical nihilism, a career very popular in Russian fiction.

Bad manners have indeed a distinct ethical value.

We all experience moods in which we politely assent to the thing that is not, because of the fatigue of fighting for the thing that is.

A temperament such as has been delineated is therefore, as human types go, an excellent type.