Never did anybody look so sad. Bitter and black, halfway down, in the darkness, in the shaft which ran from the sunlight to the depths, perhaps a tear formed; a tear fell; the waves swayed this way and that, received it, and were at rest. Never did anybody look so sad.

It seems as if an age of genius must be succeeded by an age of endeavour; riot and extravagance by cleanliness and hard work.

Mrs Dalloway is always giving parties to cover the silence

Speech is an old torn net, through which the fish escape as one casts it over them.

Yet, it is true, poetry is delicious; the best prose is that which is most full of poetry.

I find that when I've seen a certain number of people my mind becomes like an old match box -- the part one strikes on, I mean.

fishing teaches a stern morality; inculcates a remorseless honesty.