Mr Howard Saxby, literary agent, was knitting a sock. He knitted a good deal, he would tell you if you asked him, to keep himself from smoking, adding that he also smoked a good deal to keep himself from knitting.

Some time ago," he said, "--how long it seems! -- I remember saying to a young friend of mine of the name of Spiller, 'Comrade Spiller, never confuse the unusual with the impossible.' It is my guiding rule in life.

When it comes to letting the world in on the secrets of his heart, he has about as much shrinking reticence as a steam calliope.

Woman is the unfathomable, incalculable mystery, the problem we men can never hope to solve.

A lesser moustache, under the impact of that quick, agonised expulsion of breath, would have worked loose at the roots.

Just another proof, of course, of what I often say - it takes all sorts to make a world.

The trouble with cats is that they've got no tact.