Matthew Pearl

“The force of Dante's poetry resonated most in those who did not confess the Catholic faith, for believers would inevitably have quibbles with Dante's theology. But for those most distant theologically, Dante's faith was so perfect, so unyielding, that a reader found himself compelled by the poetry to take it all to heart.”

“In fact, the laboratory may be the greatest friend to dumb animals. As science advances, the lives of animals will improve as we depend less and less on their labor and no longer ignore their conditions in order to improve ours. You know, there is much to learn from animals if we are ever to be truly industrial creatures. The beaver is the finest builder of bridges and the silkworm a better weaver than any man or woman. God gave industry perfectly to the caterpillar while we must learn our arts. That is technology--our way to become closer to being like animals.”

“...and luckily I have enough in my head to balance what is wanting in my back.”

“Why did nature not ask my advice about my features?”

“Every scientific truth goes through three stages. First, people say it conflicts with the Bible. Second, they say it has been discovered before. Last, they say they always believed it.”

“Money is good, but it is not all about a man. You will have successes and reversals, but remember it is your reaction to each of them that counts for your character.”

“Unlike New York or Chicago, once you were inside Boston, any point in the city was fairly convenient to any other.”

“I prefer the society of one faithful person to an association of rapid talkers, who more than anything else seek admiration from one another.”

“He was outwardly calm but inwardly bleeding to death.”

“ 'Pity without rigor would be cowardly egotism, mere sentimentality.' ”

“ 'Yes, we rather condemn people for eternity without the courtesy of informing them.' ”

“ 'Till America has learned to love literature not as an amusement, not as a mere doggerel to memorize in a college room, but for its humanizing and ennobling energy, my dear reverend president, she will not have succeeded in that high sense which alone makes a nation out of a people. That which raises it from a dead name to a living power.' ”

“ 'Do not ask what brings Dante to man but what brings man to Dante-to personally enter his sphere, though it is forever severe and unforgiving.' ”

“Remember that there are two things in this life that are never worth crying about: what can be cured and what cannot be cured.”

“Shakespeare brings us to know ourselves. Dante, with his dissection of all others, bids us to know one another.”

“Books do pretend ...but squeezed in between is even more that is true—without what you may call the lies, the pages would be too light for the truth, you see?”

“Though a woman tempted man to eat, my dear Longfellow," said Holmes, "you never hear of Eve having to do with his drinking, for he took to that of his own notion.”