I wanted so terribly to be good to him.

Americans do seem to say things which make the English notice England.

What a tiny list of friends I have! All my fault. I less and less want to see people.

Like many other much-loved humans, they believed that they owned their dogs, instead of realizing that their dogs owned them.

And at last father flung the rug off as if it were hampering him and strode over to the table saying, 'cocoa, cocoa!'-- it might have been the most magnificent drink in the world; which, personally, I think it is.

Noble deeds and hot baths are the best cures for depression.

He stood staring into the wood for a minute, then said: "What is it about the English countryside — why is the beauty so much more than visual? Why does it touch one so?" He sounded faintly sad. Perhaps he finds beauty saddening — I do myself sometimes. Once when I was quite little I asked father why this was and he explained that it was due to our knowledge of beauty's evanescence, which reminds us that we ourselves shall die. Then he said I was probably too young to understand him; but I understood perfectly.