Be soft, even if you stand to get squashed.

Hope, politeness, the blowing of a nose, the squeak of a boot, all produce "boum.

I really don't know what happens next -- one so seldom does.

This element of surprise or mystery the detective element as it is sometimes rather emptily called is of great importance in a plot.

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.

Surely the only sound foundation for a civilization is a sound state of mind.

England has always been disinclined to accept human nature.