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Life is made too easy. Mankind's moral fibre is giving way under the softening influence of luxury.

Strange to see how a good dinner and feasting reconciles everybody.

Though sages may pour out their wisdom's treasure, there is no sterner moralist than pleasure.

It is easy at any moment to surrender a large fortune; to build one up is a difficult and an arduous task.

The way to anybody's heart is through a thoughtfully-prepared, beautifully-executed, lovingly-presented meal.

Funny you mention my dinner parties when I have just suggested that inviting close friends over to share a meal with candlelight and wine at your table could be a form of religious experience for some people. To me it's a form of sacrament.

Good fellowship and friendship are lasting, rational and manly pleasures.

Few people have ever seriously wished to be exclusively rational. The good life which most desire is a life warmed by passions and touched with that ceremonial grace which is impossible without some affectionate loyalty to traditional form and ceremonies.