It is not the office of a novelist to show us how to behave ourselves; it is not the business of fiction to teach us anything.

Tea had come as a deliverer to a land that called for deliverance; a land of beef and ale, of heavy eating and abundant drunkenness; of gray skies and harsh winds; of strong-nerved, stout-purposed, slow-thinking men and women. Above all, a land of sheltered homes and warm firesides - firesides that were waiting - waiting for the bubbling kettle and the fragrant breath of tea.

Necessity knows no Sunday.

It is impossible to withhold education from the receptive mind, as it is impossible to force it upon the unreasoning.

It is not the office of a novelist to show us how to behave ourselves; it is not the business of fiction to teach us anything.

the pleasure of possession, whether we possess trinkets, or offspring - or possibly books, or prints, or chessmen, or postage stamps - lies in showing these things to friends who are experiencing no immediate urge to look at them.

Friendship takes time.