Guests can be, and often are, delightful, but they should never be allowed to get the upper hand.

Reading was very important; the proper exercise and development of one's mind was a paramount duty.

Beauty made you love, and love made you beautiful.

Love isn't decent. Love is glorious and shameless.

I have been much afflicted again lately by visitors . . . and they gave me to understand that if they had had the arranging of the garden it would have been finished long ago - whereas I don't believe a garden is ever finished. They have all gone now, thank heaven.

Well, I for one am unable to imagine how anybody who lives with an intelligent and devoted dog can every be lonely.

On wet days I will go into the thickest parts of the forest, where the pine needles are everlastingly dry, and when the sun shines I'll lie on the heath and see how the broom flares against the clouds. I shall be perpetually happy, because there will be no one to worry me.