Appearances are not held to be a clue to the truth,' said his cousin. 'But we seem to have no other.

A leopard does not change his spots, or change his feeling that spots are rather a credit.

Anyone who picks up a Compton-Burnett finds it very hard not to put it down.

There are different kinds of wrong. The people sinned against are not always the best.

My youth is escaping without giving me anything it owes me.

We can build upon foundations anywhere if they are well and firmly laid.

As regards plot I find real life no help at all. Real life seems to have no plots. And as I think a plot desirable and almost necessary, I have this extra grudge against life.

Real life seems to have no plots.

I never know why self-sacrifice is noble. Why is it better to sacrifice oneself than someone else?

Many people misjudge the permanent effect of sorrow, and their capacity to live in the past.

A plot is like the bones of a person, not interesting like expression, or signs of experience, but the support of the whole.

What we can change is our perceptions, which have the effect of changing everything.

What is in your blood matters, but not as much as what is in your heart.

Art is contemplation. It is the pleasure of the mind which searches into nature and which there divines the spirit of which nature herself is animated.

It is economic power that determines political power, and governments become the political functionaries of economic power.

I suspect that dreams are an integral part of existence, with far more use for us than we've made of them...The fine line between the dream state and reality is at times, for me, quite grey.

Animals we are, and animals we remain, and the path to our regeneration and happiness, if there be such a path, lies through our animal nature.

The President has only 190 million bosses. The Vice President has 190 million and one.

My first job was as an assistant in the local library. Self fulfilling prophecy?

If you're not happy without it, you'll never be happy with it.

Some women want the strong silent type, so they can tell him to shut up and rearrange the furniture.