Five reasonably intelligent men sat in a stupor of impotence, repeating wearily the essentials of a problem which they could not solve. - John Buchan

It is the place and time for dark deeds, for the heart grows savage; and if two enemies met in the hollow of the mist only one would go away.

The war had called forth the finest qualities of human nature, and with the advent of peace there seemed a risk of the world slipping back into a dull materialism. Men had begun to ask of everything its cash value, and to cherish, as if it were a virtue, a narrow utilitarian commonsense.

Tommy sniffed the spring breeze like a supercilious stag.