I always want to know the things one shouldn't do." "So as to do them?" asked her aunt. "So as to choose." said Isabel

Never say you know the last word about any human heart.

An Englishman's never so natural as when he's holding his tongue.

What is character but the determination of incident? What is incident but the illustration of character?

The "germ," wherever gathered, has ever been for me, "the germ of a story," and most of the stories strained to shape under my hand have sprung from a single small seed, a seed as remote and windblown as a casual hint.

The house of fiction has in short not one window, but a million, ... but they are, singly, as nothing without the posted presence of the watcher.

Which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit?