To every separate person a thing is what he thinks it is – in other words, not a thing, but a think.
Opening the shop gave her, every morning, the same feeling of promise and opportunity. The books stood as neatly ranged as Gipping’s vegetables, ready for all comers.
Helping other people is a drug so dangerous that there is no cure short of total abstention.
I have remained true to my deepest convictions. I mean the courage of those who are born to be defeated, the weaknesses of the strong, and the tragedy of misunderstandings and missed opportunities, which I have done my best to treat as comedy – for otherwise how can we manage to bear it?
Morality is seldom a safe guide for human conduct.
I believe that people should write biographies only about people they love, or understand, or both. Novels, on the other hand, are often better if they’re about people the writer doesn’t like very much.
The body, then, has a mind of its own. It must follow, then, that the Mind has a body of its own, even if it’s like nothing that we can see around us, or have ever seen.
A good book is the precious life-blood of a master-spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life, and as such it must surely be a necessary commodity.
An unjust punishment is never forgotten.
On the whole, I think you should write biographies of those you admire and respect, and novels about human beings who you think are sadly mistaken.
If they don’t depend on true evidence, scientists are no better than gossips.
It’s very good for an idea to be commonplace. The important thing is that a new idea should develop out of what is already there so that it soon becomes an old acquaintance. Old acquaintances aren’t by any means always welcome, but at least one can’t be mistaken as to who or what they are.
It is interesting to note that everyone has a different take on the world, a different opinion, and given the same inputs have completely different outputs.
Experiences aren’t given to us to be ‘got over,’ otherwise they would hardly be experiences.
Behind their dark glass, the mad own nothing.
A word of advice. If, as a young man, student, you are tormented by a desire for women, it is best to get out into the fresh air as much as possible.
Duty is what no-one else will do at the moment.
She had a kind heart, though that is not of much use when it comes to the matter of self-preservation.