She always says, my lord, that facts are like cows. If you look them in the face hard enough they generally run away.

The making of miracles to edification was as ardently admired by pious Victorians as it was sternly discouraged by Jesus of Nazareth. Not that the Victorians were unique in this respect. Modern writers also indulge in edifying miracles though they generally prefer to use them to procure unhappy endings, by which piece of thaumaturgy they win the title of realists.

make no mistake about it, the detective-story is part of the literature of escape, and not of expression.

A facility for quotation covers the absence of original thought.

Time and trouble will tame an advanced young woman, but an advanced old woman is uncontrollable by any earthly force.

The keeping of an idle woman is a badge of superior social status.

Lord, teach us to take our hearts and look them in the face, however difficult it may be.