An acquaintance had become a lover, might become a husband, but would retain all that she had noted in the acquaintance; and love must confirm an old relation rather than reveal a new one.

It is so difficult - at least, I find it difficult - to understand people who speak the truth.

Naked I came into the world, naked I shall go out of it! And a very good thing too, for it reminds me that I am naked under my shirt, whatever its colour.

“It is Fate that I am here,” persisted George. “But you can call it Italy if it makes you less unhappy.”

Expansion, that is the idea the novelist must cling to, not completion, not rounding off, but opening out.

She must be assured that it is not a criminal offense to love at first sight.

In the novel we can know people perfectly, and, apart from the general pleasure of reading, we can find here a compensation for their dimness in life.