I have always been a writer of letters, and of long ones; so, when I first thought of writing a book in the form of letters, I knew that I could do it quickly and easily.

If nature had arranged that husbands and wives should have children alternatively, there would never be more than three in a family.

A saint is one who makes goodness attractive.

For the last half of my life I have had the doubtful benefit of a brother whose literary reputation is much greater than my own.

Father eternal, ruler of creation, Spirit of life, which moved ere form was made Through the thick darkness covering every nation Light to man's blindness, O be Thou our aid.

I still think that if the human race, or even one nation, could only get right about its God the rest would follow.

I was just then going through a healthy reaction from the orthodoxy of my youth; religion had become for me not so much a possession as an obsession, which I was trying to throw off, and this iconoclastic tale of an imaginary tribe was the result.