The redemptive power of divine grace no longer seemed credible, nor very respectable in the arbitrary performance that was claimed for it.

I wonder if we are all wrong about each other, if we are just composing unwritten novels about the people we meet?

It is the soul's duty to be loyal to its own desires. It must abandon itself to its master passion.

Hatred of domestic work is a natural and admirable result of civilization. ... The first thing a woman does when she gets a little money into her hands is to hire some other poor wretch to do her housework.

There is no logical reason why the camel of great art should pass through the needle of mob intelligence.

If the poor ever feel poor as the rich do, we will have a most bloody revolution.

Because hypocrisy stinks in the nostrils one is likely to rate it as a more powerful agent for destruction than it is.