I never had, or wished for, power over you. That isn't true, of course. I wanted the greatest power of all. but not advantage, or authority.

The tragedy is not that love doesn't last. The tragedy is the love that lasts.

... one doesn't really profit from experience; one merely learns to predict the next mistake.

A poet or novelist will invent interruptions to avoid long consecutive days at the ordained page; and of these the most pernicious are other kinds of writing -- articles, lectures, reviews, a wide correspondence.

Madness might sometimes give access to a kind of knowledge. But was not a guarantee.

In England, life is a long process of composing oneself.

When people say of their tragedies, 'I don't often think of it now,' what they mean is it has entered permanently into their thoughts, and colors everything.