“It was one of the dullest speeches I ever heard. The Agee woman told us for three quarters of an hour how she came to write her beastly book, when a simple apology was all that was required.”

“When she came to write her story, she would wonder when the books and the words started to mean not just something, but everything.”

“How do you manage it, she said, at your age? I told her I'd been saving up for her all my life.”

“She told me once that when she was with me she felt like the beautiful woman she never thought she'd be. I can't imagine what could ever make her think she wasn't beautiful enough to anyone, least of all me. She's the beautiful one. The most beautiful one in the world to me.”

“A woman at one of mother's parties once said to me, "Do you like reading?" which smote us all to silence, for how could one tell her that books are like having a bath or sleeping, or eating bread - absolute necessities which one never thinks of in terms of appreciation. And we all sat waiting for her to say that she had so little time for reading, before ruling her right out for ever and ever.”

“That Lady Russell of steady age and character, and extrememly well provided for,should have no thought of a second marriage needs no apology to the public, which is rather apt to be unreasonalbly discontented when a woman 'does' marry again,than when she does not, but Sir William's continuing in singleness requires explanation.”