Bokelskere.no

Philip had never been able to surmount what he acknowledged was a defect in his resolute desire for a well ordered life, and that was his passion for living in the future

"I've got a rotten nature," he said to himself. "I look forward to things awfully, and then when they come I'm always disappointed."

It is not very comfortable to have the gift of being amused at one's own absurdity.

He was not of those who can talk of what moves them without caring whether it bores or not the people they talk to.

…he had the unfortunate gift of seeing things as they were, and the reality which was offered him differed too terribly from the ideal of his dreams.

When I read a book I seem to read it with my eyes only, but now and then I come across a passage, perhaps only a phrase, which has a meaning for me, and it becomes part of me.

The bright hopes of youth had to be paid for at such a bitter price of disillusionment.

He did not know how wide a country, arid and precipitous, must be crossed before the traveller through life comes to an acceptance of reality.

You will find as you grow older that the first thing needful to make the world a tolerable place to live in is to recognize the inevitable selfishness of humanity.

Philip was a good listener; though he often thought of clever things to say it was seldom till after the opportunity to say them had passed.