We Americans are mildly interested, of course, in reading about the discovery of radium by Madame Curie, but what we really yearn to know is the name of the uncommemorated French female who first mixed a sauce bearnaise.

... not talking about things she doesn't understand to people who do or about things she does to people who don't.

What Marie Antoinette was to eighteenth-century France, Mary Pickford is to twentieth-century America.

Young men and young women, full of courage, originality, and genius, are everywhere to be met with.

My interest in society - at times so pronounced that the word snob comes a little to mind - derives from the fact that I like an immense number of things which society, money, and position bring in their train: painting, tapestries, rare books, smart dresses, dances, gardens, country houses, correct cuisine, and pretty women.