Men have an extraordinarily erroneous opinion of their position in nature; and the error is ineradicable.

I travel because I like to move from place to place, I enjoy the sense of freedom it gives me, it pleases me to be rid of ties, responsibilities, duties, I like the unknown; I meet odd people who amuse me for a moment and sometimes suggest a theme for a composition; I am often tired of myself and I have a notion that by travel I can add to my personality and so change myself a little. I do not bring back from the journey quite the same self that I took

One cannot find peace in work or in pleasure, in the world or in a convent, but only in one's soul.

The value of culture is its effect on character. It avails nothing unless it ennobles and strengthens that. Its use is for life. Its aim is not beauty but goodness.

The ideas for stories that thronged my brain would not let me rest till I had got rid of them by writing them.

The inclination to digress is human. But the dramatist must avoid it even more strenuously than the saint must avoid sin, for while sin may be venial, digression is mortal.

A good style should show no signs of effort. What is written should seem a happy accident.