Death cancels our engagements, but it does not affect the consequences of our acts in life.

Perhaps the habit which distinguishes civilized people from others is that of discussion, exchange of opinion and ideas, the ability to differ without quarrelling, to say what you have to say civilly and then to listen civilly to another speaker.

With the most infinite tenderness I have ever known in my life, he put his arms around me, gently, gently, and I embraced him around the neck, and we touched.

Physical infidelity is the signal, the notice given, that all fidelities are undermined.

In this moment she felt that she had been robbed of an enormous number of valuable things, whether material or intangible: things lost or broken by her own fault, things she had forgotten and left in houses when she moved: books borrowed from her and not returned, journeys she had planned and had not made, words she had waited to hear spoken to her and had not heard, and the words she meant to answer with. . . .

Life is a game of piquet played in a bramble bush in very bad weather.

The greatest art comes out of warmth and conviction and deep feeling, but then, very few people, even geniuses, have all that.