When women are secret they are secret indeed; and more often then not they only begin to be secret with the advent of a second lover.

The value of old age depends upon the person who reaches it. To some men of early performance it is useless. To others, who are late to develop, it just enables them to finish the job.

Meanwhile, the trees were just as green as before; the birds sang and the sun shone as clearly now as ever. The familiar surroundings had not darkened because of her grief, nor sickened because of her pain. She might have seen that what had bowed her head so profoundly -the thought of the world's concern at her situation- was found on an illusion. She was not an existence, an experience, a passion, a structure of sensations, to anybody but herself.

If the story-tellers could ha' got decency and good morals from true stories, who'd have troubled to invent parables?

I wish I had never been born--there or anywhere else.

Bless thy simplicity, Tess

Did it never strike your mind that what every woman says, some women may feel?