Friendship is the instrument by which God reveals to each of us the beauties of others.

An Ulster Scot may come to disbelieve in God, but not to wear his weekday clothes on the Sabbath.

When we lose one blessing, another is often most unexpectedly given in its place.

Human intellect is incurably abstract.

I am a product of endless books. My father bought all the books he read and never got rid of any of them. There were books in the study, books in the drawing room, books in the cloakroom, books (two deep) in the great bookcase on the landing, books in a bedroom, books piled as high as my shoulder in the cistern attic...In the seemingly endless rainy afternoons I took volume after volume from the shelves. I had always the same certainty of finding a book that was new to me as a man who walks into a field has of finding a new blade of grass.

There is, hidden or flaunted, a sword between the sexes till an entire marriage reconciles them.

Some people write heavily, some write lightly. I prefer the light approach because I believe there is a great deal of false reverence about. There is too much solemnity and intensity in dealing with sacred matters; too much speaking in holy tones.