We learn resignation not by our own suffering, but by the suffering of others.

He had heard people speak contemptuously of money: he wondered if they had ever tried to do without it.

and he loved her suddenly because she loved him.

People ask for criticism, but they only want praise.

She had no mercy. He looked at her neck and thought how he would like to jab it with the knife he had for his muffin. He knew enough anatomy to make pretty certain of getting the carotid artery. And at the same time he wanted to cover her pale, thin face with kisses.

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.

When things are at their worst, I find something always happens.