The greatest pleasure is not - say - sex or geometry. It is just understanding. And if you can get people to understand their own humanity - well, that's the job of the writer.

We have a disharmony in our natures. We cannot live together without injuring each other.

We've got to have rules and obey them. After all, we're not savages. We're English, and the English are best at everything.

If faces were different when lit from above or below -- what was a face? What was anything?

A star appeared...and was momentarily eclipsed by some movement.

Philosophy and Religion-what are they when the wind blows and the water gets up in lumps?

Life should serve up its feast of experience in a series of courses.