“There grows in the North Country a certain kind of youth of whom it may be said that he is born to be a Londoner.”

“The manner of his life was of no importance. What affected her was that he had once been young. That he had grown old, and was now dead. That was all. Youth and vigour had come to that. Youth and vigour always came to that. Everything came to that.”

“Having once decided to achieve a certain task, achieve it at all costs of tedium and distaste. The gain in self-confidence of having accomplished a tiresome labour is immense.”

“The proper, wise balancing of one's whole life may depend upon the feasibility of a cup of tea at an unusual hour.”

“A cause may be inconvenient, but it's magnificent. It's like champagne or high heels, and one must be prepared to suffer for it.”

“Readers of a certain class are apt to call good the plot of that story in which "you can't tell what is going to happen next." But in some of the most tedious novels ever written you can't tell what is going to happen next--and you don't care a fig what is going to happen next.”

“The man who begins to go to bed forty minutes before he opens his bedroom door is bored; that is to say, he is not living.”