The novel is the one bright book of life. Books are not life. They are only tremulations on the ether. But the novel as a tremulation can make the whole man alive tremble.

Art is a form of supremely delicate awareness and atonement — meaning atoneness, the state of being at one with the object.

In the ancient recipe, the three antidotes for dullness or boredom are sleep, drink, and travel. It is rather feeble. From sleep you wake up, from drink you become sober, and from travel you come home again. And then where are you? No, the two sovereign remedies for dullness are love or a crusade.

Never was an age more sentimental, more devoid of real feeling, more exaggerated in false feeling, than our own.

Aren't I enough for you?' she asked. 'No,' he said. 'You are enough for me, as far as a woman is concerned. You are all women to me. But I wanted a man friend, as eternal as you and I are eternal.' (Women in Love)

Instead of chopping yourself down to fit the world, chop the world down to fit yourself.

The profoundest of all sensualities is the sense of truth and the next deepest sensual experience is the sense of justice.