whatever the uses of a room, they are seriously interfered with if it be not preserved as a world by itself.

It is almost as stupid to let your clothes betray that you know you are ugly as to have them proclaim that you think you are beautiful.

To know when to be generous and when firm—that is wisdom.

The value of books is proportionate to what may be called their plasticity -- their quality of being all things to all men, of being diversely moulded by the impact of fresh forms of thought.

And he felt himself oppressed by this creation of factitious purity, so cunningly manufactured by a conspiracy of mothers and aunts and grandmothers and long-dead ancestresses, because it was supposed to be what he wanted, what he had a right to, in order that he might exercise his lordly pleasure in smashing it like an image made of snow.

She had no tolerance for scenes which were not of her own making.

The taste of the usual was like cinders in his mouth, and there were moments when he felt as if he were being buried alive under his future.