I feel like a divorced wife once my book is published and has left me, and hate to be brought back into intimate contact!

All the feeling which my father could not put into words was in his hand-any dog, child or horse would recognize the kindness of it.

All greatness in style begins, I imagine, with such respect, deep and passionate enough to produce a humility which will not assert itself at the expense even of inanimate things: out of which submissiveness a desire to serve is born, in disinterested accuracy toward the object, whatever it may be.

To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the most pleasant sensations in the world. You are surrounded by adventure.

This is a great moment, when you see, however distant, the goal of your wandering. The thing which has been living in your imagination suddenly become part of the tangible world. It matters not how many ranges, rivers or parching dusty ways may lie between you; it is yours now for ever.

The camel carries on his dreary circular task with his usual slow and pompous step and head poised superciliously, as if it were a ritual affair above the comprehension of the vulgar; and no doubt he comforts himself for the dullness of life by a sense of virtue, like many other formalists beside him.

Your real progressives are never fair: they are never sufficiently neutral.