Put simply the novel stands between us and the hardening concept of statistical man. There is no other medium in which we can live for so long and so intimately with a character. That is the service a novel renders.

Nothing is so impenetrable as laughter in a language you don't understand.

The trouble was, if you were a chief you had to think, you had to be wise.

The rules!" shouted Ralph, "you're breaking the rules!" "Who cares?

Towards midnight the rain ceased and the clouds drifted away, so that the sky was scattered once more with the incredible lamps of stars.

The Navy's a very gentlemanly business. You fire at the horizon to sink a ship and then you pull people out of the water and say, 'Frightfully sorry, old chap.'

Life's scientific, but we don't know, do we? Not certainly, I mean.