Not to be, but to seem, virtuous - it is a formula whose utility we all discovered in the nursery.

Surely you know that if a man can't be cured of churchgoing, the next best thing is to send him all over the neighbourhood looking for the church that "suits" him until he becomes a taster or connoisseur of churches.

This is one of the miracles of love: It gives a power of seeing through its own enchantments and yet not being disenchanted.

Do not look sad. We shall meet soon again." "Please, Aslan", said Lucy,"what do you call soon?" "I call all times soon" said Aslan; and instantly he was vanished away.

A promise must be about actions: no one can promise to go on feeling a certain way.

I thought I could describe a state; make a map of sorrow. Sorrow, hoever, turns out to be not a state but a process.

If one is only to talk from first-hand experience, conversation would be a very poor business.