"She had a very agreeable smile; it did not light up her face suddenly, but seemed rather to suffuse it by degrees with charm. It hesitated for a moment about her lips and then slowly travelled to those great shining eyes of hers and there softly lingered."

"'I sometimes think,' said the Eternal, 'that the stars never shine more brightly than when reflected in the muddy waters of a wayside ditch.'"

"[...] the Eternal turned his attention to the three shades who stood humbly and yet hopefully before him. The quick, with so short a time to live, when they talk of themselves, talk too much; but the dead, with eternity before them, are so verbose that only angels could listen to them with civility."

"I have always been convinced that if a woman once made up her mind to marry a man nothing but instant flight could save him."

"Bob Forestier had pretended for so many years to be a gentleman that in the end, forgetting that it was all a fake, he had found himself driven to act as in that stupid, conventional brain of his he thought a gentleman must act. No longer knowing the difference between sham and real, he had sacrificed his life to a spurious heroism."

"It is very natural that clever young men should be rather odious. They are conscious of gifts that they do not know how to use. They are exasperated with the world that will not recognize their merit. They have something to give, and no hand is stretched out to receive it. They are impatient for the fame they regard as their due."

"I held my breath, for to me there is nothing more awe-inspiring than when a man discovers to you the nakedness of his soul."

"He had a bitter pain in his heart, for he knew that she was still a stranger to him and his hungry love was destined ever to remain unsatisfied."

"He loved her so passionately he wanted her to be one soul and one body with him; and he was conscious that here, with those deep roots attaching her to the native life, she would always keep something from him."

"Marriage is a very good thing, but I think it's a mistake to make a habit out of it."

"Now it is a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best you very often get it..."

"She had a pretty gift for quotation, which is a serviceable substitute for wit..."

"You bloody fool, you've killed the wrong man."

"At a dinner party one should eat wisely but not too well, and talk well but not too wisely."

"Sentimentality is only sentiment that rubs you up the wrong way."

"I made up my mind long ago that life was too short to do anything for myself that I could pay others to do for me."

"It was not till quite late in life that I discovered how easy it is to say: "I don't know.""

"Things were easier for the old novelists who saw people all of a piece. Speaking generally, their heroes were good through and through, their villains wholly bad."

"She plunged into a sea of platitudes, and with the powerful breast stroke of a channel swimmer made her confident way towards the white cliffs of the obvious."

"If forty million people say a foolish thing it does not become a wise one, but the wise man is foolish to give them the lie."

"What mean and cruel things men can do for the love of God."

"There are men whose sense of humour is so ill developed that they still bear a grudge against Copernicus because he dethroned them from the central position in the universe. They feel it a personal affront that they can no longer consider themselves the pivot upon which turns the whole of created things."

"In the country the darkness of night is friendly and familiar, but in a city, with its blaze of lights, it is unnatural, hostile and menacing. It is like a monstrous vulture that hovers, biding its time."

"There is no object to life. To nature nothing matters but the continuation of the species."

"Few misfortunes can befall a boy which bring worse consequences than to have a really affectionate mother."

"Men have an extraordinarily erroneous opinion of their position in nature; and the error is ineradicable."

"The more intelligent a man is the more capable is he of suffering."

"Anyone can tell the truth, but only very few of us can make epigrams."

"The love that lasts longest is the love that is never returned."

"Considering how foolishly people act and how pleasantly they prattle, perhaps it would be better for the world if they talked more and did less."

"A god that can be understood is not a god."

"The sad Don Quixote of a worthless purpose."

"Religion is...a conspiracy of...priests to gain control over the people..."

"In art honesty is not only the best but the only policy."

"Passion doesn't count the cost. ... Passion is destructive."

"Women are always glad to listen when you discourse upon love..."

"There are men who are possessed by an urge so strong to do some particular thing that they can't help themselves, they've got to do it. They're prepared to sacrifice everything to satisfy their yearning."

"He found himself now in the agreeable situation of being able to do what was best for others and at the same time what was convenient to himself."

"Things don't get any easier by putting them off."

"Don't you know? Because American women expect to find in their husbands a perfection that English women only hope to find in their butlers."

"Almost all the people who have had most effect on me I seem to have met by chance."

"It may be that if I lead the life I've planned for myself it may affect others; the effect may be no greater than the ripple caused by a stone thrown in a pond, but one ripple causes another."

"He was the kind of man with whom one would have hesitated to pass a lonely evening, but with whom one might cheerfully have looked forward to spending six months."

"I thought I should be a fool to allow work to interfere with a delight in the passing moment that I might never enjoy again so fully."