There's nothing grimmer than the tragedy that wears a comic mask.

Silence may be as variously shaded as speech.

Their long years together had shown him that it did not so much matter if marriage was a dull duty, as long as it kept the dignity of duty: lapsing from that, it became a mere battle of ugly appetites.

No insect hangs its nest on threads as frail as those which will sustain the weight of human vanity.

Ah, good conversation - there's nothing like it, is there? The air of ideas is the only air worth breathing.

...and wondering where he had read that clever liars give details, but that the cleverest do not.

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.