The only wealth that mattered was affinity and generosity. Affinity towards oneself and generosity towards the world itself.

In the outworks of our lives, we were almost strangers, but we shared a certain outlook on human life and human destiny, which, from the very first, made a bond of extreme strength . . . . At our very first meeting, we talked with continually increasing intimacy. We seemed to sink through layer after layer of what was superficial, till gradually both reached the central fire. It was an experience unlike any other that I have known. We looked into each other's eyes, half appalled and half intoxicated to find ourselves together in such a region. The emotion was as intense as passionate love, and at the same time all-embracing. I came away bewildered, and hardly able to find my way among ordinary affairs.

When elderly invalids meet with fellow-victims of their own ailments, then at last real conversation begins, and life is delicious.

The profoundest affinities are those most readily felt.

It is a great bond to dislike the same things.

There can be little liking where there is no likeness.