Who knows what true loneliness is - not the conventional word but the naked terror? To the lonely themselves it wears a mask. The most miserable outcast hugs some memory or some illusion.

It is my belief no man ever understands quite his own artful dodges to escape from the grim shadow of self knowledge.

It is a maudlin and indecent verity that comes out through the strength of wine.

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

The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much.

Words, as is well known, are the great foes of reality. I have been for many years a teacher of languages. It is an occupation which at length becomes fatal to whatever share of imagination, observation, and insight an ordinary person may be heir to. 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.

She feared the unknown as we all do, and her ignorance made the unknown infinitely vast.