And this is the final meaning of work: the extension of human consciousness. The lesser meaning of work is the achieving of self-preservation.

It is marriage, perhaps, which had given man the best of his freedom, given him his little kingdom of his own within the big kingdom of the state.... It is a true freedom because it is a true fulfilment, for man, woman and children. Do we then want to break marriage? If we do break it, it means we all fall to a far greater extent under the direct sway of the State.

Only in a novel are all things given full play.

The word arse is as much god as the word face. It must be so, otherwise you cut off your god at the waist.

Rippling, rippling, rippling, like a flapping overlapping of soft flames, soft as feathers, running to points of brilliance, exquisite, exquisite and melting her all molten inside.

I think I am much too valuable a creature to offer myself to a German bullet gratis and for fun.

I like relativity and quantum theories because I don't understand them and they make me feel as if space shifted about like a swan that can't settle, refusing to sit still and be measured; and as if the atom were an impulsive thing always changing its mind.