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.

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

suicide can be used as a very cruel weapon, you know. It can be the ultimate revenge, leaving a scar that a living person may carry to the grave.

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

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.