An exceedingly well-informed report,' said the General. 'You have given yourself the trouble to go into matters thoroughly, I see. That is one of the secrets of success in life.

— Anthony Powell

Anyway, what can one do here? I am seriously thinking of running away and joining the Foreign Legion or the North-West Mounted Police—whichever work the shorter hours.

— Anthony Powell

Barney always dismissed the idea of intelligence in a woman as no more than a characteristic to be endured.

— Anthony Powell

Books do furnish a room.

— Anthony Powell

Bring a torch, if you've got one. It's as dark as hell and stinks of something far worse than cheese.

— Anthony Powell

Daydreams of wealth or women must have given Carlo that faraway look which never left him; sad and silent, he contemplated huge bank balances and voluptuous revels.

— Anthony Powell

Entering the front door, you were at once assailed by a nightmare of cheerlessness and squalor, all the sordid melancholy, at its worst, of any nest of bedrooms where only men sleep;

— Anthony Powell

Esteem for the army - never in this country regarded, in the continental manner, as a popular expression of the national will - implies a kind of innocence.

— Anthony Powell

Feeling unable to maintain this detachment of attitude towards human- and, in especial, matrimonial- affairs, I asked whether it was not true that she had married Bob DuPont. She nodded; not exactly conveying, it seemed to me, that by some happy chance their union had introduced her to an unexpected terrestrial paradise.

— Anthony Powell

For some reason Canon Fennel made me feel a little uneasy. His voice might be soft, it was also coercive. He had small eyes, a large loose mouth, the lips thick, a somewhat receding chin. The eyes were the main feature. They were unusual eyes, not only almost unnaturally small, but vague, moist, dreamy, the eyes of a medium. His cherubic side, increased by a long slightly up tilted nose, was a little too good to be true, with eyes like that. In the manner in which he gave you all his attention there was a taste for mastery.

— Anthony Powell