“There are small bits of useless knowledge which stick to one's brain like barnacles to a boat.”

“Knowledge was the great thing--not abstract knowledge in which Dr. Forester had been so rich, the theories which lead one enticingly on with their appearance of nobility, of transcendent virtue, but detailed, passionate, trivial human knowledge.”

“The more unstable life is the less one likes the small details to alter.”

“One can't reason away regret-it's a bit like falling in love, falling into regret.”

“I am late,' she said, 'I know that I am late. So many little things have to be done when you are alone, and I am not yet accustomed to being alone,' she added with a pretty little sob which reminded me of a cut-glass Victorian tear-bottle. She took off thick winter gloves with a wringing gesture which made me think of handkerchiefs wet with grief, and her hands looked suddenly small and useless and vulnerable.”

“If your courage holds in the small battles, it will hold in the great ones.”

“The world was in her heart already, like the small spot of decay in a fruit.”