Then the pain of loss leaped out on me, like a knife in the night when one has been on one’s guard all day. - Mary Renault

All men seek esteem; the best by lifting themselves, which is hard to do, the rest by shoving others down, which is much easier.

There is only one kind of shock worse than the totally unexpected: the expected for which one has refused to prepare.

Just lately I have been happier than I ever had the right to expect, and as one goes around the world one sees that happiness is hard to come by and seldom lasts for long.