“The family - that dear octopus from whose tentacles we never quite escape, nor, in our inmost hearts, ever quite wish to.”

“Noble deeds and hot baths are the best cures for depression.”

“I have found that sitting in a place where you have never sat before can be inspiring.”

“Noble deeds and hot baths are the best cures for depression.”

“When I imagine changing places with her I get the feeling I do on finishing a novel with a brick-wall happy ending---I mean the kind of ending when you never think any more about the characters.”

“When I read a book, I put in all the imagination I can, so that it is almost like writing the book as well as reading it - or rather, it is like living it. It makes reading so much more exciting”

“No, that was my privilege.”

“That little glow of comfort lasted me right through the evening but was gone when I woke up next morning. Wakings are the worst times--almost before my eyes are open a great weight seems to roll on to my heart.”

“...[P]erhaps it is the loving that counts, not the being loved in return---that perhaps true loving can never know anything but happiness.”

“Only half a page left now. Shall I fill it with 'I love you, I love you'-- like father's page of cats on the mat? No. Even a broken heart doesn't warrant a waste of good paper.”

“And who says you always have to understand things? You can like them without understanding them -- like 'em better sometimes.”