If the whole human race lay in one grave, the epitaph on its headstone might well be: 'It seemed like a good idea at the time.'

But there are other things than dissipation that thicken the features. Tears, for example.

It appears that even the different parts of the same person do not converse among themselves, do not succeed in learning from each other what are their desires and their intentions.

Nobody likes having salt rubbed into their wounds, even if it is the salt of the earth.

Domesticity is essentially drama, for drama is conflict, and the home compels conflict by its concentration of active personalities in a small area. The real objection to domesticity is that it is too exciting.

Women know the damnation of charity because the habit of civilization has always been to throw them cheap alms rather than give them good wages.

All good biography, as all good fiction, comes down to the study of original sin, of our inherent disposition to choose death when we ought to choose life.