A translation is no translation unless it will give you the music of a poem along with the words of it.

In a good play every speech should be as fully flavored as a nut or apple.

In the middle classes the gifted son of a family is always the poorest -- usually a writer or artist with no sense for speculation -- and in a family of peasants, where the average comfort is just over penury, the gifted son sinks also, and is soon a tramp on the roadside.

The general knowledge of time on the island depends, curiously enough, on the direction of the wind.

It is the timber of poetry that wears most surely, and there is no timber that has not strong roots among the clay and worms.

Foreign languages are another favourite topic, and as these men are bilingual they have a fair notion of what it means to speak and think in many different idioms.

At first I threw my weight upon my heels, as one does naturally in a boot, and was a good deal bruised, but after a few hours I learned the natural walk of man, and could follow my guide in any portion of the island.