Prayer is request. The essence of request, as distinct from compulsion, is that it may or may not be granted. And if an infinitely wise Being listens to the requests of finite and foolish creatures, of course He will sometimes grant and sometimes refuse them.

It is a very funny thing that the sleepier you are, the longer you take about getting to bed.

The true enjoyments must be spontaneous and compulsive and look to no remoter end.

According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride.

A pleasure is full grown only when it is remembered.

God, who needs nothing, loves into existence wholly superfluous creatures in order that he may love and perfect them.

No good poem, however confessional it may be, is just a self-expression. Who on earth would claim that the pearl expresses the oyster?