[W]e are almost always in one place with our minds somewhere quite other.

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

The world is full of places to which I want to return

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.

If for nine years I have possessed a goodly apple that is rotten at the core and discover its rottenness only in nine years and six months less four days, isn't it true to say that for nine years I possessed a goodly apple?

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.

[W]e are almost always in one place with our minds somewhere quite other.