“It follows that they never understood Reginald, who came down late to breakfast, and nibbled toast, and said disrespectful things about the universe. The family ate porridge, and believed in everything, even the weather forecast.”

“Never,” wrote Reginald to his most darling friend, “be a pioneer. It's the Early Christian that gets the fattest lion.”

“I did it—I who should have known better. I persuaded Reginald to go to the McKillops’ garden-party against his will. We all make mistakes occasionally.”

“The censorious said she slept in a hammock and understood Yeats's poems, but her family denied both stories.”

“The young have aspirations that never come to pass, the old have reminiscences of what never happened.”

“To be clever in the afternoon argues that one is dining nowhere in the evening.”

“I'm living so far beyond my income that we may almost be said to be living apart.”