I had a strong sudden instinct that I must be alone. I didn’t want to see any people at all. I had seen so many people all my life -- I was an average mixer, but more than average in a tendency to identify myself, my ideas, my destiny, with those of all classes that came in contact with. I was always saving or being saved -- in a single morning I would go through the emotions ascribable to Wellington at Waterloo. I lived in a world of inscrutable hostiles and inalienable friends and supporters.

I was too absorbed to be responsive

Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.

I was within and without. Simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.

The unwelcome November rain had perversely stolen the day's last hour and pawned it with that ancient fence, the night.

He had waited five years and bought a mansion where he dispensed starlight to casual moths - so that he could 'come over' some afternoon to a stranger's garden.

It appears that every man's insomnia is as different from his neighbours as are their daytime hopes and aspirations.