A fool tries to look different: a clever man looks the same and is different.

Every man at the bottom of his heart believes that he is a born detective.

Civilisation is a conspiracy.

I am an ordinary sort of fellow, not braver than other people, but I hate to see a good man downed, and that long knife would not be the end of Scudder if I could play the game in his place.

Our sufferings have taught us that no nation is sufficient unto itself, and that our prosperity depends in the long run, not upon the failures of our neighbors but their successes.

The sea has formed the English character and the essential England is to be found in those who follow it. From blue waters they have learned mercifulness, and they have also learned - in the grimmest of schools - precision and resolution. The sea endures no makeshifts. If a thing is not exactly right it will be vastly wrong.

"What would you call the highest happiness, Lewie?" he asked. "The sense of competence," was the answer, given without hesitation.