“Seeking perfection, Ross . . . in life it’s dangerous, for it makes the less than perfect seem less than enough. Time… — Winston Graham Copy Share Image
“Another and less elevated lesson she had learned in married life was that if she wheedled long enough and discreetly enough, she… — Winston Graham Copy Share Image
Give me the comma of imperfect striving, thus to find zest in the immediate living. Ever the reaching but never the gaining,… — Winston Graham Copy Share Image
“Perhaps one aspect of arrogance lies in not being willing to accept what life sometimes expects one to accept.” — Winston Graham Copy Share Image
“He was a goat tethered to the peg of his own character and could only consume the riches of the earth that… — Winston Graham Copy Share Image
“As would be the case all through her life, she had a store of nervous energy, unavailable at ordinary times but able… — Winston Graham Copy Share Image
“Because what is civilized life but an imposition of unreal standards upon flawed and defective human beings by other human beings no… — Winston Graham Copy Share Image
“That reminds me of when you used to call and see us before Christmas, the year before last. Somehow–somehow life was all… — Winston Graham Copy Share Image
“All the week a great thunderbolt hung over the house. All her life Demelza’s principle, though she did not know it as… — Winston Graham Copy Share Image
“At times I have discovered a new lowness of spirit, a new need to revolt, to kick against the constraints that a… — Winston Graham Copy Share Image
“I suspect that for a good deal of the time you live in a sort of glass case, not knowing real enthusiasm… — Winston Graham Copy Share Image
“sigh, for her returning life was a tonic to his soul. Whatever she suffered, whatever loss came to her, she would throw… — Winston Graham Copy Share Image
“Yet, although he could not quite work this out in simple terms in his own mind, the very savour of life, he… — Winston Graham Copy Share Image
For life is a trumpery thing at best, isn't it? A few moments, a few words, between dark and dark. But in… — Winston Graham Copy Share Image
“Yet, although he could not quite work this out in simple terms in his own mind, the very savour of life, he thought, was… — Winston Graham Copy Share
When you bring an idealised relationship down to the level of an ordinary one it isn't necessarily the ordinary one that suffers'. — Winston Graham Copy Share
“It is hopeless for older people to tell younger ones – particularly their own children – that they have been through the same thing.… — Winston Graham Copy Share
Give me the comma of imperfect striving, thus to find zest in the immediate living. Ever the reaching but never the gaining, ever the… — Winston Graham Copy Share
“Tedn’t right. Tedn’t tidy. Tedn’t fair. Tedn’t clean. Tedn’t good enough.” — Winston Graham Copy Share
“he was deeply annoyed at having to leave the fair before he was drunk, a thing that had never happened to him since he… — Winston Graham Copy Share
“Perhaps,” said Demelza, trembling all over. “Perhaps I’d ought to have asked for an introduction seeing it’s so long since we met.” “I don’t… — Winston Graham Copy Share
“Give me some surety if you want to continue. It is not late yet.” Ross offered his gold watch, which had belonged to his… — Winston Graham Copy Share
“Not for the first time he was conscious of emotional lights and shades in his wife that could not be categorized, could not be… — Winston Graham Copy Share
“Sir Hugh squeezed her arm so often that Demelza began to wonder if the show was all a pretext for being with her in… — Winston Graham Copy Share
“All the conflicting feeling inside her suddenly found an outlet. The mixed motives for asking him in—the liking, the affection, the feminine curiosity, the… — Winston Graham Copy Share
“It’s gone!” he shouted. “The brandy!” said Prudie, lurching to her feet. “’Ere, who’s stolen it? ’Twas there an hour gone—” “Not all three… — Winston Graham Copy Share
“Help, help, help, I am lost in the very deeps of the earth. Not eight feet underground but two hundred; blind already but not… — Winston Graham Copy Share
