At all events, I do not mean to leave it unaltered.

I have read that the secret of gallantry is to accept the pleasures of life leisurely, and its inconveniences with a shrug; as well as that, among other requisites, the gallant person will always consider the world with a smile of toleration, and his own doings with a smile of honest amusement, and Heaven with a smile which is not distrustful — being thoroughly persuaded that God is kindlier than the genteel would regard as rational.

In religious matters a traveller loses nothing by civility.

I fear You and, yes, I love You: and yet I cannot believe. Why could You not let me believe, where so many believed? Or else, why could You not let me deride, as the remainder derided so noisily? O God, why could You not let me have faith? for You gave me no faith in anything, not even in nothingness. It was not fair.

The desire to write perfectly of beautiful happenings is, as the saying runs, old as the hills — and as immortal.

People must have both their dreams and their dinners in this world, and when we go out of it we must take what we find. That is all.

Why is the King of Hearts the only one that hasn't a moustache?