But complex people are never certain that they are not crooks, never certain their passports are quite in order, and are, therefore, unnerved by the slightest thing.

In big houses in which things are done properly, there is always the religious element. The diurnal cycle is observed with more feeling when there are servants to do the work.

The short story is at an advantage over the novel, and can claim its nearer kinship to poetry, because it must be more concentrated, can be more visionary, and is not weighed down (as the novel is bound to be) by facts, explanation, or analysis. I do not mean to say that the short story is by any means exempt from the laws of narrative: it must observe them, but on its own terms.

There is no end to the violations committed by children on children, quietly talking alone.

Meeting people unlike oneself does not enlarge one's outlook; it only confirms one's idea that one is unique.

rudeness to Mrs. Dosely was like dropping a pat of butter on to a hot plate - it slid and melted away.

the process of reading is reciprocal; the book is no more than a formula, to be furnished out with images out of the reader's mind.