Shorter Prose Pieces

Contents:

Phrases And Philosophies for the Use of The Young
Mrs. Langtry as Hester Grazebrook
Slaves of Fashion
Woman's Dress
More Radical Ideas upon Dress Reform
Costume
The American Invasion
Sermons in Stones at Bloomsbury
L'Envoi

PHRASES AND PHILOSOPHIES FOR THE USE OF THE YOUNG

The first duty in life is to be as artificial as possible. What
the second duty is no one has as yet discovered.

Wickedness is a myth invented by good people to account for the
curious attractiveness of others.

If the poor only had profiles there would be no difficulty in
solving the problem of poverty.

Those who see any difference between soul and body have neither.

A really well-made buttonhole is the only link between Art and
Nature.

Religions die when they are proved to be true. Science is the
record of dead religions.

The well-bred contradict other people. The wise contradict
themselves.

Nothing that actually occurs is of the smallest importance.

Dulness is the coming of age of seriousness.

In all unimportant matters, style, not sincerity, is the essential.
In all important matters, style, not sincerity, is the essential.

If one tells the truth one is sure, sooner or later, to be found
out.

Pleasure is the only thing one should live for. Nothing ages like
happiness.

It is only by not paying one's bills that one can hope to live in
the memory of the commercial classes.

No crime is vulgar, but all vulgarity is crime. Vulgarity is the
conduct of others.

Only the shallow know themselves.

Time is waste of money.

One should always be a little improbable.

There is a fatality about all good resolutions. They are
invariably made too soon.

The only way to atone for being occasionally a little overdressed
is by being always absolutely overeducated.

To be premature is to be perfect.

Any preoccupation with ideas of what is right or wrong in conduct
shows an arrested intellectual development.

Ambition is the last refuge of the failure.

A truth ceases to be true when more than one person believes in it.

In examinations the foolish ask questions that the wise cannot
answer.

Greek dress was in its essence inartistic. Nothing should reveal
the body but the body.

One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art.

It is only the superficial qualities that last. Man's deeper
nature is soon found out.

Industry is the root of all ugliness.

The ages live in history through their anachronisms.

It is only the gods who taste of death. Apollo has passed away,
but Hyacinth, whom men