"What do you mean by God?" he said; "there are two irreconcilable ideas
of God. There's the Unknowable Creative Principle--one believes in That.
And there's the Sum of altruism in man naturally one believes in That.
She was such a decided mortal; knew her own mind so terribly well; wanted
things so inexorably until she got them--and then, indeed, often dropped
them like a hot potato. Her mother had been like that, whence had come
all those tears. Not that his incompatibility with his daughter was
anything like what it had been with the first Mrs. Young Jolyon.
One could be amused where a daughter was concerned; in a wife's case
one could not be amused.
"Thank you for that good lie.
Love has no age, no limit; and no death.
Did Nature permit a Forsyte not to make a slave of what he adored? Could
beauty be confided to him? Or should she not be just a visitor, coming
when she would, possessed for moments which passed, to return only at her
own choosing? 'We are a breed of spoilers!' thought Jolyon, 'close and
greedy; the bloom of life is not safe with us. Let her come to me as she
will, when she will, not at all if she will not. Let me be just her
stand-by, her perching-place; never-never her cage!'
....causing the animal to wake and attack his fleas; for though he was
supposed to have none, nothing could persuade him of the fact.
It's always worth while before you do anything to consider whether it's
going to hurt another person more than is absolutely necessary."