The clever men at Oxford
Know all that there is to be knowed.
But they none of them know one half as much
As intelligent Mr. Toad.

As a rule, indeed, grown-up people are fairly correct on matters of fact; it is in the higher gift of imagination that they are so sadly to seek.

It is the restrictions placed on vice by our social code which makes its pursuit so peculiarly agreeable.

"Well, well, perhaps I am a bit of a talker. A popular fellow such as I am --my friends get round me --we chaff, we sparkle, we tell witty stories --and somehow my tongue gets wagging. I have the gift of conversation. "

The strongest human instinct is to impart information, the second strongest is to resist it.