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.

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

I do not believe that it is possible to teach a cat to obey; that is contrary to his nature.

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.

Brutality is sometimes easier to endure than ridicule.

The buildings ... had suffered the inevitable shrinkage of places revisited.