Wilkie Collins

“ Some systems assert themselves in volumes—my system asserts itself in two words: Never think of anything until you have first asked yourself if there is an absolute necessity for doing it, at that particular moment. ”

“ Looking back leads the way to sorrow. And looking forward ends in the cruellest of all delusions: it encourages hope. The present time is the precious time. Live for the passing day: the passing day is all that we can be sure of. ”

“ On reflection, I find myself troubled by complexities and contradictions in the view presented of this young man’s character. To decide positively whether I can justify to myself and to my regard for Eunice, an attempt to reunite the lovers, requires more time for consideration than I can reasonably expect that Helena’s patience will allow. Having a quiet hour or two still before me, I have determined to make extracts from the letters for my own use ”

“ Thinking of things, when things needn’t be thought of, is offering an opportunity to Worry; and Worry is the favourite agent of Death when the destroyer handles his work in a lingering way, and achieves premature results. ”

“ My father is kind, in his own odd way—and learned, and rich—a more high-minded and honourable man (as I have every reason to believe) doesn’t live. But if you ask me which he prefers, his books or his son, I hope I do him no injustice when I answer, his books. ”

“ Mrs. Staveley remarked.
“What did you expect me to be interested in?” my father inquired. “I was absorbed in the fowl. Favour me by returning to the subject.”
Mrs. Staveley admits that she answered this rather sharply: “The subject, sir, was your son’s admiration for a charming girl: one of the daughters of Mr. Gracedieu, the famous preacher.”
My father is too well-bred to speak to a lady while his attention is absorbed by a fowl. He finished the second wing, and then he asked if “Philip was engaged to be married.”
“I am not quite sure,” Mrs. Staveley confessed. ”

“ Persons possessing this rare advantage are blest with powers of expression not granted to their ordinary fellow-creatures. My father’s nose is a mine of information to friends familiarly acquainted with it. ”

“ I shall present them here, to speak for themselves. Is there any objection to this? None that I can see.
In the first place, those extracts have a value of their own. They add necessary information to the present history of events. ”

“ Staveley?
I called on her yesterday, not long after she had paid a visit to my father. Luck had favoured her. She arrived just at the time when hunger had obliged him to shut up his books, and ring for something to eat. Mrs. Staveley secured a favourable reception with her customary tact and delicacy. He had a fowl for his dinner. She knows his weakness of old ”