It's no use crying over spilt milk, because all of the forces of the universe were bent on spilling it.

It is cruel to discover one's mediocrity only when it is too late. It does not improve the temper.

On the earth, satellite of a star speeding through space, living things had arisen under the influence of conditions which were part of the planet's history; and as there had been a beginning of life upon it, so, under the influence of other conditions, there would be an end: man, no more significant than other forms of life, had come not as the climax of creation but as a physical reaction to the environment.

The love that lasts longest is the love that is never returned.

The worst of having so much tact was that you never quite knew whether other people were acting naturally or being tactful too. [The human element]

I did not believe him capable of love. That is an emotion in which tenderness is an essential part, but Strickland had no tenderness either for himself or for others; there is in love a sense of weakness, a desire to protect, an eagerness to do good and to give pleasure--if not unselfishness, at all events a selfishness which marvellously conceals itself; it has in it a certain diffidence.

Impropriety is the soul of wit.