People make mistakes in life through believing too much, but they have a damned dull time if they believe too little.
His guests found it fun to watch him make tea -- mixing careful spoonfuls from different caddies.
He was a wanderer between two worlds and must ever wander...
He had, in fact, already begun to sink into that creeping dry rot of pedagogy which is the worst and ultimate pitfall of the profession; giving the same lessons year after year had formed a groove int...
The will of God or the lunacy of man - it seemed to him that you could take your choice, if you wanted a good enough reason for most things. Or, alternatively (and he thought of it as he contemplated...
You were contemplating the mountain, Mr. Conway? Came the inquiry.Yes, it's a fine sight. It has a name, I suppose?It is called KarakalI don't think I've ever heard of it. Is is very high?Over twenty-...
He was, and he knew it, very quietly in love with the little Manchu. His love demanded nothing, not even reply; it was a tribute of the mind, to which his senses added only a flavor.
He was forty-eight — an age at which permanence of habits begins to be predictable.
Laziness in doing stupid things can be a great virtue
Then the whole range, much nearer now, paled into fresh splendor; a full moon rose, touching each peak in succession like some celestial lamplighter, until the long horizon glittered against a blue-bl...
Moonlight faded after a time, and with it that distant specter of the mountain; then the triple mischiefs of darkness, cold, and wind increased until dawn. As though at its signal, the wind dropped, l...
His was one of those well-groomed reputations that get the most out of everything; any unusual holiday acquires the character of an exploration, and though the explorer takes care to do nothing really...
He had suddenly come to realize a single facet of the promised jewel; he had Time, Time for everything that he wished to happen, such Time that desire itself was quenched in the certainty of fulfillme...
And what if it’s a trap? asked Mallinson, but Barnard supplied an answer. A nice warm trap, he said, with a piece of cheese in it, would suit me down to the ground.
My friend, it is not an arduous task that I bequeath, for our order knows only silken bonds. To be gentle and patient, to care for the riches of the mind, to preside in wisdom and secrecy while the st...
Grins and disregarding silence met the shouts of the four imprisoned passengers, while the slightest attempt to alight provoked a menacing movement from a score of rifles. Conway, who knew a little Pu...
And so it stood, a warm and vivid patch in his life, casting a radiance that glowed in a thousand recollections.
Suspicion had sometimes been current that he really was as unruffled as he looked, and that whatever happened, he did not give a damn. But this, too, like the laziness, was an imperfect interpretation...
Dilettanti.
Life's more important than a living. So many people who make a living are making death, not life. Don't ever join them. They're the gravediggers of our civilization - The safe men. The compromisers. T...