Daughters could survive a powerful mother, but boys found it almost impossible. Such boys were often severely damaged and spent the rest of their lives running away from their mothers, or from anybody who remotely reminded them of their mothers; either that, or they became their mothers, in a desperate, misguided act of psychological self defence.

The point about love, the essential point, was that we loved what we loved. We did not choose. We just loved.

Do not take on a traditionally built person unless you are prepared for a heavyweight bout.

Any extreme political creed brought only darkness in the long run; it lit up nothing. The best politics were those of caution, tolerance and moderation, Angus maintained, but such politics were, alas, also very dull, and certainly moved nobody to poetry.

There are many women whose lives would be immeasurably improved by widowhood, but one should not always point that out.

There is plenty of work for love to do.

Everybody has friends they dislike; people who they have slipped into relationships with, people they would not have chosen had they been more cautious, more circumspect.