"No egoism is so insufferable as that of the Christian with regard to his soul."

"In the country the darkness of night is friendly and familiar, but in a city, with its blaze of lights, it is unnatural, hostile and menacing. It is like a monstrous vulture that hovers, biding its time."

"There is no explanation for evil. It must be looked upon as a necessary part of the order of the universe. To ignore it is childish, to bewail it senseless."

"The trouble with young writers is that they are all in their sixties."

"Man's desire for the approval of his fellows is so strong, his dread of their censure so violent, that he himself has brought his enemy (conscience) within his gates; and it keeps watch over him, vigilant always in the interests of its master to crush any half-formed desire to break away from the herd."

"You know, there are two good things in life, freedom of thought and freedom of action."

"How silly men were! Their part in procreation was so unimportant; it was the woman who carried the child through long months of uneasiness and bore it with pain, and yet a man because of his momentary connection made such preposterous claims. Why should that make any difference to him in his feelings towards the child?"

"Money is the string with which a sardonic destiny directs the motions of its puppets."

"She could not admit but that he had remarkable qualities, sometimes she thought that there was even in him a strange and unattractive greatness; it was curious then that she could not love him, but loved still a man whose worthlessness was now so clear to her."

"Perfection has one grave defect: it is apt to be dull."

"It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it."

"Act so that every action of yours should be capable of becoming an universal rule of action for all men."

"When I read a book I seem to read it with my eyes only, but now and then I come across a passage, perhaps only a phrase, which has a meaning for me, and it becomes part of me."

"I do not believe that I am a vindictive man, but when the immortal gods take a hand in the matter it is pardonable to observe the results with complacency."

"The most useful thing about a principle is that it can always be sacrificed to expediency."

"I'll give you my opinion of the human race in a nutshell... their heart's in the right place, but their head is a thoroughly inefficient organ."

"My own belief is that there is hardly anyone whose sexual life, if it were broadcast, would not fill the world at large with surprise and horror."

"It was such a lovely day I thought it a pity to get up."

"The essence of the beautiful is unity in variety."

"Was it necessary to tell me that you wanted nothing in the world but me?'The corners of his mouth drooped peevishly.Oh, my dear, it's rather hard to take quite literally the things a man says when he's in love with you.'Didn't you mean them?'At the moment."

"You are not angry with people when you laugh at them. Humor teaches tolerance."

"Then this must be my answer: We know that the attributes of God are infinite and it has always seemed strange to me that men have never given Him credit for common sense. It is hard to believe that He would have created so beautiful a world if He had not decided men to enjoy it. Would He have given the stars their glory, the birds their sweet song, and the flowers, their fragrance if He had not wished us to delight in them? I shave sinned before men and men have condemned me. God made me a man with passions of a man, and did He give them to me only that I should suppress them? He gave me my adventurous spirit and my love of life. I have a humble hope that when I am face to face with my Maker He will condone my imperfections and I shall find mercy in His sight."

"What did it all mean? He thought of his own life, the high hopes with which he had entered upon it, the limitations which his body forced upon him, his friendlessness, and the lack of affection which had surrounded his youth. He did not know that he had ever done anything but what seemed best to do, and what a cropper he had come! Other men, with no more advantages than he, succeeded, and others again, with many more, failed. It seemed pure chance. The rain fell alike upon the just and upon the unjust, and for nothing was there a why and a wherefore."

"It looked as though you did not act in a certain way because you thought in a certain way, but rather you thought in a certain way because you were made in a certain way. Truth had nothing to do with it."

"People ask for criticism, but they only want praise."

"Himself an ugly man, insignificantof appearance, he prized very highly comeliness in others."

"Like all weak men he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one's mind."

"...some men are born out of their due place. Accident has cast them amid certain surroundings, but they have always a nostalgia for a home they know not."

"The illusion of free will is so strong in my mind that I can't get away from it, but I believe it is only an illusion. But it is an illusion which is one of the strongest motives of my actions. Before I do anything I feel that I have a choice, and that influences what I do; but afterwards, when the thing is done, I believe it was inevitable from all eternity.''What do you deduce from that?''Why merely the futility of regret. It's no good crying over spilt milk, because all the forces of the universe were bent on spilling it."

"And the poor lady, so small in her black satin, shrivelled up and sallow, with her funny corkscrew curls, took the little boy on her lap and put her arms around him and wept as though her heart would break. But her tears were partly tears of happiness, for she felt that the strangeness between them was gone. She loved him now with a new love because he had made her suffer."

"Tolerance is another word for indifference."

"Something wonderful and strange that the artist fashions out of the chaos of the world in the torment of his soul."

"She had a pretty gift for quotation, which is a serviceable substitute for wit."

"She's wonderful. Tell her I've never seen such beautiful hands. I wonder what she sees in you.Waddington, smiling, translated the question."She says I'm good."As if a woman ever loved a man for his virtue, Kitty mocked."

"We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person."

"The common idea that success spoils people by making them vain, egotistic and self-complacent is erroneous; on the contrary it makes them, for the most part, humble, tolerant and kind."

"I respect him. He has brains and character; and that, I may tell you, is a very unusual combination."

"Money is like a sixth sense without which you cannot make a complete use of the other five."

"The ideal has many names and beauty is but one of them."

"Beauty is an ecstasy; it is as simple as hunger. There is really nothing to be said about it. It is like the perfume of a rose: you can smell it and that is all."

"Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit."

"It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it."

"I don't see why the things we believe absolutely now shouldn't be just as wrong as what they believed in the past.''Neither do I.''Then how can you believe anything at all?''I don't know."

"A man's work reveals him. In social intercourse he gives you the surface that he wishes the world to accept, but in his book or his picture the real man delivers himself defenceless. No affectation of peculiarity can conceal a commonplace mind. No one can produce the most casual work without disclosing the innermost secrets of his soul."

"There are three secrets to writing a novel. Unfortunately nobody knows what they are."

"I'm one of the few persons I ever met who are able to learn from experience."

"It was like making a blunder at a party; there was nothing to do about it, it was dreadfully mortifying, but it showed a lack of sense to ascribe too much importance to it."

"We do not write because we want to, we write because we have to."

"An unfortunate thing about this world is that the good habits are much easier to give up than the bad ones."

"But Philip was impatient with himself; he called to mind his idea of the pattern of life: the unhappiness he had suffered was no more than part of a decoration which was elaborate and beautiful; he told himself strenuously that he must accept with gaiety everything, dreariness and excitement, pleasure and pain, because it added to the richness of the design."