"A happy childhood has spoiled many a promising life."

"Few people can see genius in someone who has offended them."

"A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine building should be seen by morning light, at noon and by moonlight."

"He was a genius - that is to say, a man who does superlatively and without obvious effort something that most people cannot do by the uttermost exertion of their abilities."

"The world is full of people whose notion of a satisfactory future is, in fact, a return to the idealised past."

"There is no nonsense so gross that society will not, at some time, make a doctrine of it and defend it with every weapon of communal stupidity."

"The only obligation to which in advance we may hold a novel, without incurring the accusation of being arbitrary, is that it be interesting."

"This book fills a much-needed gap."

"Do give books - religious or otherwise - for Christmas. They're never fattening, seldom sinful, and permanently personal."

"Many books require no thought from those who read them, and for a very simple reason; they made no such demand upon those who wrote them."

"Life-transforming ideas have always come to me through books."

"A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine building should be seen by morning light, at noon and by moonlight."