Well, Buttermere, this is a day that is good to live and breathe in, that makes a man feel in his prime. Standing here in front of my house, I feel as young as when I moved into it thirty years ago, in the year eighteen hundred and fifty-nine. What aged man would you take me to be, as I step as it were casually into your view?

Anyone who picks up a Compton-Burnett finds it very hard not to put it down.

My youth is escaping without giving me anything it owes me.

Dear, dear, the miniature world of the family! All the emotions of mankind seem to find a place in it.

There isn't much to say. I haven't been at all deedy.

It is no good to think that other people are out to serve our interests.

Parents have too little respect for their children, just as the children have too much for the parents.