One must be fond of people and trust them if one is not to make a mess of life.

'Oh, poor, poor fellow!' said Mrs. Elliot with a remorse that was sincere, though her congratulations would not have been.

It is the function of the novelist to reveal the hidden life at its source: to tell us more about Queen Victoria than could be known, and thus to produce a character who is not the Queen Victoria of history.

School was the unhappiest time of my life and the worst trick it ever played on me was to pretend that it was the world in miniature. For it hindered me from discovering how lovely and delightful and kind the world can be, and how much of it is intelligible.

Money pads the edges of things.

He had shown her all the workings of his soul, mistaking this for love.

Chess is a forcing house where the fruits of character can ripen more fully than in life