The four characteristics of humanism are curiosity, a free mind, belief in good taste, and belief in the human race.

I believe in teaching people to be individuals, and to understand other individuals.

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.

The present flowed by them like a stream. The tree rustled. It had made music before they were born, and would continue after their deaths, but its song was of the moment. The moment had passed. The tree rustled again. Their senses were sharpened, and they seemed to apprehend life. Life passed. The tree rustled again.

Men yearn for poetry though they may not confess it; they desire that joy shall be graceful and sorrow august and infinity have a form.

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

The only books that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little farther down our particular path than we have yet got ourselves.