Jealousy is the lifelong noose hanging about the neck of love.

But the true evil of drink lies in the disillusion: that the initial pleasure very soon evaporates, leaving a demoralizing craving for more, which is not even temporarily pleasurable. Which then leads to deterioration of the faculties of both body and mind; plus a bewildering lack of co-operation between the two.

England, where nobody ever says what they mean: and by denying feeling, kill it off stone-cold at the roots.

none of what I know is out of books. ... I prefer tactual learning. Touching, on the quick of the sore nail, of present, mobile life. To toy, to gnaw, to tear: at the living element of pain. Like at a living drumstick.

One should never go back to a place one has loved; for, however, rough the going forward is, it is better than the snuffing out-of-love return.

If happiness comes at all: which is by no means prearranged; it comes by the way, while you are seeking for something else. Something outside yourself, beyond yourself: in a brief absorption of self-forgetfulness.

resignation, perhaps the most stifling word in the language.