however many resolutions one makes, one's pen, like water, always finds its own level, and one can't write in any way other than one's own.

It is no good my telling you. One never believes other people's experiencem and one is only very gradually convinced by one's own.

It is dreadful how I miss you, and everything that everybody says seems flat and stupid.

[On writing:] The most egotistic of occupations, and the most gratifying while it lasts.

A flowerless room is a soulless room, to my way of thinking; but even a solitary little vase of a living flower may redeem it.

all the small squalors of the body, known only to oneself, insignificant in youth, easily dismissed, in old age became dominant and entered into fulfilment of the tyranny they had always threatened.

The public, as a whole, finds reassurance in longevity, and, after the necessary interlude of reaction, is disposed to recognize extreme old age as a sign of excellence. The long-liver has triumphed over at least one of man's initial handicaps: the brevity of life.