it is the possibilities which are the most terrible things in life.

If one has one cow, it is always better not to be too familiar with those who have seven.

Jane had that happy disposition which would like to imagine that every one really wishes the well-being of his neighbour and struggles, though sometimes rather disastrously, to help him towards it.

The only creative power I know is that of what might roughly be called 'love'; not of course a sentimental love: a far more impersonal and less individual emotion. I sometimes think that migratory birds may have it for each other. They fly in the same direction, and have never been seen to interfere with each other's flights.

Where there is laughter there is always more health than sickness.

This is the real tragedy of mankind, that until now the spirit of man has not been able to free itself, even along the path of its own development, from the tentacles of self-deception.

If a writer is true to his characters they will give him his plot. Observations must play second fiddle to integrity.