Angry and frustrated, the journalists set about making bricks without straw.

Some brave chrysanthemums still stood in the country gardens, but they looked like bedraggled survivors of a battle, barely able to hold their tattered banners upright. October was at the gates and autumn was in full retreat.

Brutality is sometimes easier to endure than ridicule.

It is often interesting, in retrospect, to consider the trifling causes that lead to great events. A chance encounter, a thoughtless remark - and the tortuous chain reaction of coincidence is set in motion, leading with devious inevitability to some resounding climax.

one doesn't really grow older; it's just that other people grow younger.

I can never pass a cat in the street without greeting it and exchanging a few words, and the cat invariably replies.

Cats of great personality are always found in association with sensitive, cat-conscious people; it is a two-way process of immense mutual benefit.