Things were not tragic for us then, because although we cared passionately we didn't care deeply.

Ambition, old as mankind, the immemorial weakness of the strong.

It is a sad moment when the first phlox appears. It is the amber light indicating the end of the great burst of early summer and suggesting that we must now start looking forward to autumn. Not that I have any objection to autumn as a season, full of its own beauty; but I just cannot bear to see another summer go, and I recoil from what the first hint of autumn means.

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

I like owls. I admire their intransigent spirit. I have respected them deeply ever since I met a baby owl in a wood, when it fell over dead, apparently from sheer temper, because I dared to approach it. It defied me first, and then died. I have never forgotten the horror and shame I experienced when that soft fluffy thing (towards which I had nothing but the most humanitarian motives) fell dead from rage at my feet.

how poor and disheartening a thing is experience compared with hope!

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.