That is the fearful part of having been near death. One knows how easy it is to die. The barriers that are up for everybody else are down for you, and you've only to slip through.

In fact, isn't it a joy - there is hardly a greater one - to find a new book, a living book, and to know that it will remain with you while life lasts?

I must say, I hate money. But it's the lack of it I hate most.

Oh, how quickly things changed! Why didn't happiness last for ever? For ever wasn't a bit too long.

roses are the only flowers at garden-parties; the only flowers that everybody is certain of knowing.

In the shortest sea voyage there is no sense of time. You have been down in the cabin for hours or days or years. Nobody knows or cares. You know all the people to the point of indifference. You do not believe in dry land any more - you are caught in the pendulum itself, and left there, idly swinging.

I am poor - obscure - just eighteen years of age - with a rapacious appetite for everything and principles as light as my purse.