Boredom [is] a moral failing, the mark of a mind insufficiently stocked to occupy
itself.
You must learn to be three people at once: writer, character, and reader.
You think intelligence and grit can succeed by themselves, but I'm telling you that's a pretty illusion.
Things got said, the kinds of embarrassing things that don't go away. Tempers ran high. My paternal grandfather's teak desk required a new panel, which never quite matched the others. Intellectual debate can be very hard on furniture.
Anything said in upper-crust British automatically sounded intelligent.
A good end cannot sanctify evil means, nor must we ever do evil that good may come of it.