Perfection is a trifle dull. It is not the least of life's ironies that this, which we all aim at, is better not quite achieved.

People talk of beauty lightly, and having no feeling for words, they use that one carelessly, so that it loses its force; and the thing it stands for, sharing its name with a hundred trivial objects, is deprived of dignity. They call beautiful a dress, a dog, a sermon; and when they are face to face with Beauty cannot recognise it.

Great writers create; writers of smaller gifts copy

We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person.

Life is really very fantastic, and one has to have a peculiar sense of humour to see the fun of it. [Virtue]

We didn't think much in the air corps of a fellow who wangled a cushy job out of his C.O. by buttering him up. It was hard for me to believe that God thought much of a man who tried to wangle salvation by fulsome flattery. I should have thought the worship most pleasing to him was to do your best according to your lights.

Perfection is a trifle dull. It is not the least of life's ironies that this, which we all aim at, is better not quite achieved.