It was not certain what significance the ceremony held... but the formality was no less sacred for it being unintelligible

The Earth swirls down through the ominous moons of preconsidered generations.

Seeing an Earl as an owl on a mantelpiece, and having part of one's face removed by a cat, both on the same morning, can temporarily undermine the self-control of any man.

Cold love’s the loveliest love of all. So clear, so crisp, so empty. In short, so civilized.

Yet not with all of me am I in love. Too much of my own quietness is with me.

And now, my poor old woman, why are you crying so bitterly? It is autumn. The leaves are falling from the trees like burning tears- the wind howls. Why must you mimic them?

In the presence of real tragedy you feel neither pain nor joy nor hatred, only a sense of enormous space and time suspended, the great doors open to black eternity, the rising across the terrible field of that last enormous, unanswerable question.