“You could appreciate the beauty of the world by trying to paint it.”

“... a necklace of pearls on a white neck.We had lost the sense of discovery which had infused the anarchy of our first year. I began to settle down.... the old house in the foreground, the rest of the world abandoned and forgotten; a world of its own of peace and love and beauty...”

“Evelyn Waugh: How do you get your main pleasure in life, Sir William?Sir William Beveridge: I get mine trying to leave the world a better place than I found it.Waugh: I get mine spreading alarm and despondency and I get more satisfaction than you do.”

“Well, you see, she was saintly but she wasn't a saint. No one could really hate a saint, could they? They can't really hate God either. When they want to hate him and his saints they have to find something like themselves and pretend it's God and hate that. I suppose you think that's all bosh.”

“That was the change in her from ten years ago; that, indeed, was her reward, this haunting, magical sadness which spoke straight to the heart and struck silence; it was the completion of her beauty.”

“No one could really hate a saint, could they? They can't really hate God either. When they want to Hate Him and His saints they have to find something like themselves and pretends it's God and hate that.”

“It would be a dull world if we all thought alike.”