The Two-Guinea Book

Since I started this, I may as well not neglect the last notebook. These were gems to me (what I have time for before going to work!):

Perhaps if I make myself write I shall find out what is wrong with me.

(of Topaz) ...her voice quite barotone with tragedy.

Deserts do not seem to be deserted in America.

Perhaps it gives you a glorious, valuable feeling to wear little black suits of fabulous price.

I will pause and search my innermost soul ...
I have searched it for a solid five minutes.

I am not so sure I should like the facts of life, but I have got over the bitter disappointment I felt when I first heard about them, and obviously one has to try them sooner or later.

There used to be two of us always on the look-out for life ... now there is only one, and nothing will ever be quite such fun again.

I remember my astonishment at being called a Christian.

I always enjoy the different feeling there is in a house when one is alone in it.

What a difference there is between wearing even the skimpiest bathing suit and wearing nothing! After a few minutes I seemed to live in every inch of my body as fully as I usually do in my head and my hands and my heart. I had the fascinating feeling that I could think as easily with my limbs as with my brain — and suddenly the whole of me thought that Topaz's nonsense about communing with nature isn't nonsense at all. the warmth of the sun felt like enormous hands pressing gently on me, the flutter of the air was like delicate fingers ... I expect it was what Topaz means by "pagan." Anyway, it was thrilling.

Americans do seem to say things which make the English notice England.

The one piece of Bach I learnt made me feel I was being repeatedly hit on the head with a teaspoon.

(dancing with Simon) I seemed to move with a pleasure that was mindless.

It was as if my real feelings were down fathoms deep in my mind and what we said was just a feathery surface spray.

Everything in the least connected with him has value for me; if someone even mentions his name it is like a little present to me.

If only I could have been more fascinating!

I think Americans kiss rather easily and frequently.

I expect Americans are affectionate, as a nation.

How words weave spells!

I am a restlessness inside a stillness inside a restlessness.

Then I began to think: "Who am I? Who am I? Whenever I do that, I feel one good push would shove me over the edge of lunacy.

I don't believe the villagers really like good works being done to them.

I said aloud: "I don't want to miss anything."

I had never realized before that it (luxury) is more than just having things; it makes the very air feel different.

.. but it does seem to me that the climate of richness must always be a little dulling to the senses. Perhaps it takes the edge off joy as well as off sorrow.

I felt a sadness quite separate from my personal ton of misery.

How mixed people are — how mixed and nice!

Really, the puzzlingness of people!

It gave me a stab in which happiness and misery were somehow a part of each other.

Watching sleeping people makes one feel more separate than ever from them.

She was so scared that she forgot to be a contralto.

Perhaps watching someone you love suffer can teach you even more than suffering yourself can.

Apparently I was all wrong about father. Apparently it is very clever to start a book by writing THE CAT SAT ON THE MAT nineteen times.