But to be quite oneself one must first waste a little time.

To walk into history is to be free at once, to be at large among people.

A novel which survives, which withstands and outlives time, does do something more than merely survive. It does not stand still. It accumulates round itself the understanding of all these persons who bring to it something of their own. It acquires associations, it becomes a form of experience in itself, so that two people who meet can often make friends, find an approach to each other, because of this one great common experience they have had.

Roughly, the action of a character should be unpredictable before it has been shown, inevitable when it has been shown. In the first half of a novel, the unpredictability should be the more striking. In the second half, the inevitability should be the more striking.

Reason can never reconcile one to life: nothing allays the wants one cannot explain.

... artists were intended to be an ornament to society. As a society in themselves they are unthinkable.

Sins cut boldly up through every class in society, but mere misdemeanours show a certain level in life.