On the stage . . . masks are assumed with some regard to procedure; in everyday life, the participants act their parts without consideration either for suitability of scene or for the words spoken by the rest of the cast: the result is a general tendency for things to be brought to the level of farce even when the theme is serious enough.

He fell in love with himself at first sight and it is a passion to which he has always remained faithful. Selflove seems so often unrequited.

Parents. . . are sometimes a bit of a disappointment to their children. They don't fulfil the promise of their early years.

For reasons not always at the time explicable, there are specific occasions when events begin suddenly to take on a significance previously unsuspected, so that, before we really know where we are, life seems to have begun in earnest at last, and we ourselves, scarcely aware that any change has taken place, are careering uncontrollably down the slippery avenues of eternity.

I get a warm feeling among my books.

There is, after all, no pleasure like that given by a woman who really wants to see you.

Dinner at the Huntercombes' possessed only two dramatic features - the wine was a farce and the food a tragedy.