happiness makes us older, less romantic, less in need of dreams. Discontent, not happiness, is the food of youth and poetry.

Perhaps the way with any obsession is to ignore it simply. Not to fight it, since it draws strength from any contact with us, whether hostile or friendly.

Enthusiasm is a plant which grows variously in the varying soils of different natures.

Understanding, above all, is a gift we should never offer uninvited.

Summer weather, like being in love,is a philosopher's stone which turns our ordinary days to gold. But not the whole day ... For it is never the whole day, never all our life which is transformed in any happiness, but only the exquisite moments.

the large black slugs ... come out at dusk. Enormous slugs. As big as crocodiles. So huge we need a gun to shoot them. And by the end of the summer, if they go on growing, we shall have to go out in pairs together for protection.

leisure is an attitude of mind, not simply remission of work.