So many of the loveliest things in England are melancholy.

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

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.

Time takes the ugliness and horror out of death and turns it into beauty.

What is it about the English countryside — why is the beauty so much more than visual? Why does it touch one so?

Contemplation seems to be about the only luxury that costs nothing.

It's a beautiful sight to see good dancers doing simple steps. It's a painful sight to see beginners doing complicated patterns.

Ham with mustard is a meal of glory

Like many other much-loved humans, they believed that they owned their dogs, instead of realizing that their dogs owned them.

I suppose the best kind of spring morning is the best weather God has to offer.

Pinecones. Little works of art. Prickly. Reminders of fall. Similar to pineapples. A sign of welcome.

A great building must begin with the unmeasurable, must go through measurable means when it is being designed and in the end must be unmeasurable.

Art is one thing that can go on mattering once it has stopped hurting.

Drink to me only with thine eyes, And I will pledge with mine; Or leave a kiss but in the cup And I'll not look for wine.

The point is not that I don't recognise bad people when I see them — I grant you I may quite well be taken in by them — the point is that I know a good person when I see one.

The remedy now is two scotches and an aspirin, I think.

Beware of him who hates the laugh of a child.

God created you to do him some particular service. He has given some work to you that he has not given to another. You have your mission. You shall do good.

A lot of people are doing something about their weight, but by their own reckoning, it isn't enough to get the results they want

Ninety-eight percent of what goes on in people's heads is none of their smucking business.