I have come to the conclusion, after many years of sometimes sad experience, that you cannot come to any conclusion at all.

I cannot abide the Mr. and Mrs. Noah attitude towards marriage; the animals went in two by two, forever stuck together with glue.

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.

Violence, passion, indignation, loyalty, integrity, incorruptibility, shameless egoism, generosity, excitability, energy, a hundred horse-power drive - none of it very subtle: Ethel [Smyth] didn't deal in pastel shades, she went for the stronger colors, the blood-red, anything deep and pumping out of the arteries of the heart.

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

Travel is a private pleasure, since it consists entirely of things felt and things seen.

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