It may be a mere patriotic bias, though I do not think so, but it seems to me that the English aristocracy is not only the type, but is the crown and flower of all actual aristocracies; it has all the oligarchical virtues as well as all the defects. It is casual, it is kind, it is courageous in obvious matters; but it has one great merit that overlaps even these. The great and very obvious merit of the English aristocracy is that nobody could possibly take it seriously.

Coincidence is a spiritual pun.

Truth must necessarily be stranger than fiction, for fiction is the creation of the human mind and therefore congenial to it.

The word good has many meanings.

Playing as children means playing is the most serious thing in the world.

One can sometimes do good by being the right person in the wrong place.

of being strong and brave. The strong can not be brave. Only the weak can be brave; and yet again, in practice, only those who can be brave can be trusted, in time of doubt, to be strong.