The trouble about man is twofold. He cannot learn truths which are too complicated; he forgets truths which are too simple. - Rebecca West

[On Jane Austen] She was fully possessed of the idealism which is a necessary ingredient of the great satirist. If she criticized the institutions of earth, it was because she had very definite ideas regarding the institutions of heaven.

A city that had learned to make good bread had learned to make good cake also. A city that built itself up by good sense and industry had formed a powerful secondary intention of elegance.

But our grief was useless. Salt water, spilled on the ground, does not feed what grows there, but kills it.