But in general, for the purposes of most novelists, the number of objects genuinely necessary for. . .describing a scene will be found to be very small.

The silence of a shut park does not sound like country silence: it is tense and confined.

Good-byes breed a sort of distaste for whomever you say good-bye to; this hurts, you feel, this must not happen again.

The paradox of romantic love -- that what one possesses, one can no longer desire -- was at work.

If you look at life one way, there is always cause for alarm.

A romantic man often feels more uplifted with two women than with one: his love seems to hit the ideal mark somewhere between two different faces.

Chance is better than choice; it is more lordly. Chance is God, choice is man.