The humblest craft that floats makes its appeal to a seaman by the faithfulness of her life.

Sleep after toyle, port after stormie seas, Ease after warre, death after life, does greatly please.

To a teacher of languages there comes a time when the world is but a place of many words and man appears a mere talking animal not much more wonderful than a parrot.

I sit down religiously every morning, I sit down for eight hours every day - and the sitting down is all.

The word 'ivory' rang in the air, was whispered, was sighed. You would think they were praying to it. A taint of imbecile rapacity blew through it all, like a whiff from some corpse. By Jove! I've never seen anything so unreal in my life. And outside, the silent wilderness surrounding this cleared speck on the earth struck me as something great and invincible, like evil or truth, waiting patiently for the passing away of this fantastic invasion.

Everything belonged to him. It made me hold my breath in expectation of hearing the wilderness burst into prodigious peal of laughter that would shake the fixed stars in their places.

There is a taint of death, a flavour of mortality in lies.