Zuleika Dobson; Or, an Oxford Love Story

“Death, as he had said, cancelled all engagements.””

— Max, Sir Beerbohm

“I utilise all my spare moments. I've read twenty-seven of the Hundred Best Books. I collect ferns.””

— Max, Sir Beerbohm

“One is taught to refrain from irony, because mankind does tend to take it literally. In the hearing of the gods, who hear all, it is conversely unsage to make a simple and direct statement. So what is one to do? The dilema needs a whole volume to itself.””

— Max, Sir Beerbohm

“You cannot make a man by standing a sheep on its hind-legs. But by standing a flock of sheep in that position you can make a crowd of men. If man were not a gregarious animal, the world might have achieved, by this time, some real progress towards civilisation. Segregate him, and he is no fool. But let him loose among his fellows, and he is lost”

— Max, Sir Beerbohm

“But the loveliest face in all the world will not please you if you see it suddenly, eye to eye, at a distance of half an inch from your own.””

— Max, Sir Beerbohm

“A crowd, proportionately to its size, magnifies all that in its units pertains to the emotions, and diminishes all that in them pertains to thought.””

— Max, Sir Beerbohm

“It is the privilege of nobility to condescend.””

— Max, Sir Beerbohm

“The true conjurer finds his guerdon in the consciousness of work done perfectly and for its own sake.””

— Max, Sir Beerbohm

“Our hero's unreasoning rage was fed by a not unreasonable jealousy. It was clear to him that Zuleika had forgotten his existence. To-day, as soon as he had killed her love, she had shown him how much less to her was his love than the crowd's. And now again it was only the crowd she cared for. He followed with his eyes her long slender figure as she threaded her way in and out of the crowd, sinuously, confidingly, producing a penny from one lad's elbow, a threepenny-bit from between another's neck and collar, half a crown from another's hair, and always repeating in that flute-like voice of hers: "Well, this is rather queer!””

— Max, Sir Beerbohm