traditions that have lost their meaning are the hardest of all to destroy.

The desire for symmetry, for balance, for rhythm in form as well as in sound, is one of the most inveterate of human instincts.

There are lots of ways of being miserable, but there's only one way of being comfortable, and that is to stop running round after happiness. If you make up your mind not to be happy there's no reason why you shouldn't have a fairly good time.

She seemed to melt against him in her terror, and he caught her in his arms, held her fast there, felt her lashes beat his cheek like netted butterflies.

She was not accustomed to taste the joys of solitude except in company.

Think what stupid things the people must have done with their money who say they're 'happier without'.

And all the while, I suppose," he thought, "real people were living somewhere, and real things happening to them.