We should be careful of the insults we fling at others, lest they return and land at our feet, newly minted to apply to those who had first coined them.

A wedding was a strange ceremony, she thought, with all those formal words, those solemn vows made by one to another; whereas the real question that should be put to the two people involved was a very simple one. Are you happy with each other? was the only question that should be asked; to which they both should reply, preferably in unison, Yes.

Antonia was very conscious of the corrosive power of envy and felt that it was this emotion, more than any other, which lay behind human unhappiness. People did not realize how widespread envy was.

The Okavango Delta is an astonishing sight: the great Okavango River, rather than flow towards the sea, flows inland, into the sands of the Kalahari.

I'm interested in character and dialogue and exchange of ideas.

But don't we often lie to people we love, or not tell them things, precisely because we love them?

Edinburgh used to be a haughty city.