It’s extraordinary how we go through life with eyes half shut, with dull ears, with dormant thoughts. Perhaps it’s just as well; and it may be that it is this very dullness that makes life to the incalculable majority so supportable and so welcome.

The revolutionary spirit is mighty convenient in this, that it frees one from all scruples as regards ideas.

The Westerly Wind asserting his sway from the south-west quarter is often like a monarch gone mad, driving forth with wild imprecations the most faithful of his courtiers to shipwreck, disaster, and death.

The sea never changes and its works, for all the talks of men, are wrapped in mystery.

I have wrestled with death. It is the most unexciting contest you can imagine.

Who would care to question the ground of forgiveness or compassion.

He hated all this, and somehow he couldn't get away.