Curiosity is one of the lowest of the human faculties. You will have noticed in daily life that when people are inquisitive they nearly always have bad memories and are usually stupid at bottom.

While her lips talked culture, her heart was planning to invite him to tea

Just as words have two functions - information and creation - so each human mind has two personalities, one on the surface, one deeper down. The upper personality... is conscious and alert... The lower personality is a... perfect fool, but without it there is no literature.

At night, when the curtains are drawn and the fire flickers, my books attain a collective dignity.

You told me once that we shall be judged by our intentions, not by our accomplishments. I thought it a grand remark. But we must intend to accomplish - not sit intending on a chair.

But the body is deeper than the soul and its secrets inscrutable.

I am an unspeakable of the Oscar Wilde sort.