For a bag of pepper, they could cut each other's throats without hesitation, and would forswear their souls... The bizarre obstinacy of that desire made them defy death in a thousand shapes; the unknown seas, the loathsome diseases; wounds, captivity, hunger, pestilence and despair. It made them great! By heavens! It made them heroic; and it made them pathetic, too, in their craving for trade with the inflexible death levying its toll on young and old

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

I have a voice, too, and for good or evil mine is the speech that cannot be silenced

Nations it may be have fashioned their Governments, but the Governments have paid them back in the same coin.

Being a woman is a terribly difficult task, since it consists principally in dealing with men.

A writer without interest or sympathy for the foibles of his fellow man is not conceivable as a writer.

In plucking the fruit of memory one runs the risk of spoiling its bloom, especially if it has got to be carried into the market.