It had come about ex­act­ly in the way things hap­pened in books.

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

That is why most great love stories are tragedies.

I've always believed in writing without a collaborator, because where two people are writing the same book, each believes he gets all the worry and only half the royalties.

The amount of missing girls I've had to trace and their family and their friends always say the same thing. 'She was a bright and affectionate disposition and had no men friends'. That's never true. It's unnatural. Girls ought to have men friends. If not, then there's something wrong about them.

You cannot mix up sentiment and reason.

To care passionately for another human creature brings always more sorrow than joy; but at the same time, Elinor, one would not be without experience. Anyone who has never really loved has never really lived.