The word-coining genius, as if thought plunged into a sea of words and came up dripping.

One of the signs of passing youth is the birth of a sense of fellowship with other human beings as we take our place among them.

In any case life is but a procession of shadows, and God knows why it is that we embrace them so eagerly, and see them depart with such anguish, being shadows.

The weight of the world is on our shoulders, its vision is through our eyes; if we blink or look aside, or turn back to finger what Plato said or remember Napoleon and his conquests, we inflict on the world the injury of some obliquity. This is life.

Biography is to give a man some kind of shape after his death.

Style is a very simple matter; it is all rhythm. Once you get that, you can't use the wrong words.

The world was going on as usual. All the time she was writing the world had continued.