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.

For bees are captious folk / And quick to turn against the lubber's touch.

To hope for Paradise is to live in Paradise, a very different thing from actually getting there.

I do not like January very much. It is too stationary. Not enough happens. I like the evidences of life, and in January there are too few of them.

How subtle is the relationship between the traveler and his luggage! He knows, as no one else knows, its idiosyncrasies, its contents ... and always some small nuisance which he wishes he had not brought; had known, indeed, before starting that he would regret it, but brought it all the same.

For the last 40 years of my life I have broken my back, my fingernails, and sometimes my heart, in the practical pursuit of my favourite occupation.

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.