It is the vice of a vulgar mind to be thrilled by bigness, to think that a thousand square miles are a thousand times more wonderful than one square mile, and that a million square miles are almost the same as heaven.

Not only in sex, but in all things men have moved blindly, have evolved out of slime to dissolve into it when this accident of consequences is over.

The English countryside, its growth and its destruction, is a genuine and tragic theme.

Only a struggle twists sentimentality and lust together into love.

I hated the idleness, the stupidity, the respectability, the petty unselfishness.

If I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country.

Humility is a quality for which I have only a limited admiration. In many phases of life it is a great mistake and degenerates into defensiveness or hypocrisy.