The ocean has the conscienceless temper of a savage autocrat spoiled by much adulation

What is a novel if not a conviction of our fellow men's existence strong enough to take upon itself a form of imagined life clearer than reality and whose accumulated verisimilitude of selected episodes puts to shame the pride of documentary history.

I had no particular desire to enlighten them, but I had some difficulty in restraining myself from laughing in their faces, so full of stupid importance.

Writing in English is like throwing mud at a wall.

It is to be remarked that a good many people are born curiously unfitted for the fate waiting them on this earth.

I saw him open his mouth wide. . . as though he had wanted to swallow all the air, all the earth, all the men before him.

I suppose everybody must be always just a little homesick.