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61 " But even felicitous marriages cannot last for ever, since if the love does not die the lovers do. "
― W. Somerset Maugham , The W. Somerset Maugham Collection
62 " A woman,” he repeated—”a woman is as old as she looks; but a man is as old as he feels! "
63 " What an outrageous assumption it was that age must be infallible! "
64 " Passion is the only reason for marriage; unless it exists, marriage is ugly and beastly. It’s worse than beastly; the beasts of the field are clean. "
65 " My idea of music is like Dr. Johnson’s,” said Edward, looking round for approval. "
66 " You forget, dear,” said Bertha, smiling sweetly, “that Dr. Johnson was a very ill-mannered old man whom dear Fanny would not have allowed in her drawing-room for one minute. "
67 " My songs have all got a tune in them and some feeling—they’re only fit for the kitchen. "
68 " My idea of music is something that stirs one’s heart "
69 " There is nothing like a knowledge of farming, and an acquaintance with the habits of domestic animals, to teach a man how to manage his wife. "
70 " If the tree is rotten it shall be cut down and cast into the flames. "
71 " he had an astonishing faculty of concealing his ignorance. "
72 " It is notorious that to a handsome woman even the admiration of a crossing-sweeper is welcome. "
73 " The Prime Minister out of office is seen, too often, to have been but a pompous rhetorician, and the General without an army is but the tame hero of a market town. "
74 " Heaven knows what pains the author has been at, what bitter experiences he has endured and what heartache suffered, to give some chance reader a few hours’ relaxation or to while away the tedium of a journey. "
75 " We had to make sins out of what they thought were natural actions. "
76 " Obviously the only way to make people realise that an action is sinful is to punish them if they commit it. "
77 " He listened to the chant of the birds, so joyous that it seemed impossible they sang in a world of sorrow. Hidden among the leaves, aloft in the beeches, the linnet sang with full-throated melody, and the blackbird and the thrush. In the distance a cuckoo called its mysterious note, and far away, like an echo, a fellow-bird called back. "
78 " He stood by a fir-tree, which rose far above the others, immensely tall, like the mast of a solitary ship; it was straight as a life without reproach, but cheerless, cold, and silent. "