It's astonishing in this world how things don't turn out at all the way you expect them to.

Everybody always knows something," said Adam, "even if it's something they don't know they know.

One is left with the horrible feeling now that war settles nothing; that to win a war is as disastrous as to lose one.

Mr. Jesmond made a peculiar noise rather like a hen who has decided to lay an egg and then thought better of it.

Who is there who has not felt a sudden startled pang at reliving an old experience or feeling an old emotion?

An appreciative listener is always stimulating.

Nothing, I believe, is so full of life under the microscope as a drop of water from a stagnant pool.