Socialism is not a bomb thrown at the natural institution of society, but a well-considered medicine for a diseased community. - Rebecca West

There was also a daughter, very short, very plump, very gay, an amazing production for the Gregorievitches. It was as if two very serious authors had set out to collaborate and then had published a limerick.

It is not until a community or an individual has advanced a fair distance along the path of civilisation and shows by its laws its elimination of many of its most mischievous dispositions — notably sadism — that it can bear to admit the equality of women.

You must always believe that life is as extraordinary as music says it is. — Quoted in Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood