“...surely I could give him--a sort of contentment...That isn't enough to give. Not for the giver.”

“Rose doesn’t like the flat country, but I always did – flat country seems to give the sky such a chance.”

“But some characters in books are really real--Jane Austen's are; and I know those five Bennets at the opening of Pride and Prejudice, simply waiting to raven the young men at Netherfield Park, are not giving one thought to the real facts of marriage.”

“But I can't see how anyone could believe that you killed the bear with a pitchfork,' I said.'I didn't. I only wounded it - badly, I think, but not enough to put it out of action. It came blundering towards me, I stepped aside and it crashed head-first into the river - I could hear it threshing about in the darkness. I picked up a big stone - poor brute, I hated to do it but I had to finish it off. It gave just one groan as the stone hit it and then went down. I held the lantern high; I could see the bubbles coming up. And then I saw the dark bulk of it under the water, being carried along by the current.''But you didn't have a lantern,' I said.'He didn't have a bear,' said Topaz.”

“I wonder if there isn't a catch about having plenty of money? Does it eventually take the pleasure out of things?”

“I could look at stationers' shops forever and ever.”

“I could marry the Devil himself if he had some money.”