Beauty is the first present nature gives to women and the first it takes away.

Confidence is something one acquires. It can come early or late but it is impossible to write without it. Mine came late.

If you put a woman in a man's position, she will be more efficient, but no more kind.

Never defend yourself; agree with your critics, it takes the wind out of their sails.

There was no such thing as defeat if you didn't accept it.

I have never got on with the quietist movements: they lapse too easily into self-congratulations: I have found the oneness, you have not. I prefer to look outside myself if I possibly can, not inside. Meditation reminds me too forcibly of being made to lie on a mat at nursery school and take an hour's nap.

There is probably an innate masochism in a lot of women that ends up disappointed if men don't ill-treat them.