It was an odd friendship, but the oddnesses of friendships are a frequent guarantee of their lasting texture.

It is not merely that people must die and people must suffer, if not here, then there. But what is dreadful is that the world goes on and people go on being stupidly cruel - in the old ways and all the time.

They were simple, earnest people, those early Victorians, and had not yet learnt the trick of avoiding disturbing thoughts and sights.

Higher than the beasts, lower than the angels, stuck in our idiot Eden.

If you're going to have a character appear in a story long enough to sell a newspaper, he'd better be real enough that you can smell his breath.

Six months ago I had never been to England, and, certainly, I had never sounded the depths of an English heart. I had known the shallows.

In every man there are two minds that work side by side, the one checking the other; thus emotion stands against reason, intellect corrects passion and first impressions act a little, but very little, before quick reflection.