“Deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance.”

The Tragic Sense of Life (1913), II : The Starting-Point

The scene is a society ball in London.
Source: A Lodge in the Wilderness (1906), Ch. V, p. 145.

Source: That Hideous Strength (1945), Ch. 13 : They Have Pulled Down Deep Heaven on Their Heads

Table-Talk (1857)
Context: Round about what is, lies a whole mysterious world of might be, — a psychological romance of possibilities and things that do not happen. By going out a few minutes sooner or later, by stopping to speak with a friend at a corner, by meeting this man or that, or by turning down this street instead of the other, we may let slip some great occasion of good, or avoid some impending evil, by which the whole current of our lives would have been changed. There is no possible solution to the dark enigma but the one word, "Providence".

Source: A Fine Balance

Revolution by Number

Starożytni mawiali: 'mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur'.
Świat łaknie oszustw, więc jest oszukiwany.
"A Blink of an Eye", Okamgnienie (2000); the phrase "Mundus Vult Decipi" was used as a motto by the American satirist James Branch Cabell and is said to have originated with Petronius.

Source: I and Thou

The Golden Violet - title poem - introduction
The Golden Violet (1827)