Nothing shows up the difference between the things said or read, so much as the daily experience of it.

The Saluki is a marvel of elegance.

I suppose the pleasure of country life lies really in the eternally renewed evidences of the determination to live.

There is something intrinsically wrong about letters. For one thing they are not instantaneous. ... Nor is this the only trouble about letters. They do not arrive often enough. A letter which has been passionately awaited should be immediately supplemented by another one, to counteract the feeling of flatness that comes upon us when the agonizing delights of anticipation have been replaced by the colder flood of fulfilment.

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

Everywhere bees go racing with the hours, / For every bee becomes a drunken lover, / Standing upon his head to sup the flowers.

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