He had no strength for any other war than his own solitary struggle to keep alive.

I did not know it was possible to be so miserable and live but I am told that this is a common experience.

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.

Of children as of procreation -- the pleasure momentary, the posture ridiculous, the expense damnable

My children weary me. I can only see them as defective adults: feckless, destructive, frivolous, sensual, humorless.

Her heart was broken perhaps, but it was a small inexpensive organ of local manufacture. In a wider and grander way she felt things had been simplified.

It doesn't matter what people call you unless they call you pigeon pie and eat you up.