I think there's almost nothing I can't excuse except perhaps worshiping graven images. That seems to be idiotic.

...its a rather pleasant change when all your life you've had people looking after you, to have someone to look after yourself. Only of course it has to be someone pretty hopeless to need looking after by me.

My father and I were never intimate in the sense of my coming to him with confidences or seeking advice. Our relationship was rather that of host and guest. Perhaps host and guest is really the happiest relation for father and son.

Sometimes, I feel the past and the future pressing so hard on either side that there's no room for the present at all.

I have a good mind not to take Aloysius to Venice. I don't want him to meet a lot of horrid Italian bears and pick up bad habits.

Manners are especially the need of the plain. The pretty can get away with anything.

I think there's almost nothing I can't excuse except perhaps worshiping graven images. That seems to be idiotic.