you'd like the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. That must be the most futile oath anyone ever swears.

Feel, he told himself, feel, feel, feel. Even if what you feel is pain, only let yourself feel.

If our sex life were determined by our first youthful experiments, most of the world would be doomed to celibacy. In no area of human experience are human beings more convinced that something better can be had only if they persevere.

It is always easy to question the judgement of others in matters of which we may be imperfectly informed.

You never forget the people who were kind to you in childhood, do you, sir?

Great literature cannot grow from a neglected or impoverished soil. Only if we actually tend or care will it transpire that every hundred years or so we might get a Middlemarch.

Charm is often despised but I can never see why. No one has it who isn't capable of genuinely liking others, at least at the actual moment of meeting and speaking. Charm is always genuine; it may be superficial but it isn't false.