“What degradation lay in being young.”

“He was young and ardent in a hundred happy ways.”

“The order never varies. Two slices of bread-and-butter each, and China tea. What a hide-bound couple we must seem, clinging to custom because we did so in England. Here, on this clean balcony, white and impersonal with centuries of sun, I think of half-past-four at Manderley, and the table drawn before the library fire. The door flung open, punctual to the minute, and the performance, never-varying, of the laying of the tea, the silver tray, the kettle, the snowy cloth.”

“I felt rather exhausted, and wondered, rather shocked at my callous thought, why old people were sometimes such a strain. Worse than young children or puppies because one had to be polite.”

“I would not be young again, if you offered me the world. But then I'm prejudiced.''You talk,' I said, 'as if you were ninety-nine.''For a woman I very nearly am,' she said. 'I'm thirty five.”

“But luxury has never appealed to me, I like simple things, books, being alone, or with somebody who understands.”

“Why did dogs make one want to cry? There was something so quiet and hopeless about their sympathy. Jasper, knowing something was wrong, as dogs always do. Trunks being packed. Cars being brought to the door. Dogs standing with drooping tails, dejected eyes. Wandering back to their baskets in the hall when the sound of the car dies away.”