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

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.

Civilisation is a conspiracy.

Pessimism is the one ism which kills the soul.

To live for a time close to great minds is the best kind of education.

It's a great life, if you don't weaken.

You think that a wall as solid as the earth separates civilization from barbarism. I tell you the division is a thread, a sheet of glass. A touch here, a push there, and you bring back the reign of Saturn.