Saki

“ Another darling weakness of the Academy is that none of its luminaries must ‘arrive’ in a hurry. You can see them coming for years, like a Balkan trouble or a street improvement, and by the time they have painted a thousand or so square yards of canvas, their work begins to be recognised.”
“Someone who Must Not be Contradicted said that a man must be a success by the time he’s thirty, or never.” ”

“ There is the inevitable female whom you met once in Devonshire, or the Matoppo Hills, or somewhere, who charges up to you with the remark that it’s funny how one always meets people one knows at the Academy. ”

“ But as applied to pictures, don’t you think your system would be too subtle, say, for the Country Cousins?”
“Every reformation must have its victims. You can’t expect the fatted calf to share the enthusiasm of the angels over the prodigal’s return. ”