“What neither the reader nor Stone would accept was that his self-amputation was as much and act of conceit as it was an act of heroism" p 61”

“Man is neither angel nor brute, and the unfortunate thing is that he who would act the angel acts the brute.”

“Man is neither angel nor beast, and unhappily whoever wants to act the angel, acts the beast.”

“That Beethoven was capable of producing the ultimate musical definition of heroism in this context is itself extraordinary, for he was able to evoke a dream of heroism that neither he nor his native Germany nor his adopted Vienna could express in reality. Perhaps we can only measure the heroism of the Eroica by the depth of fear and uncertainty from with it emerged.”

“Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear.”

“She hadn't expected to be sorry, and at first she wasn't. The act itself was neither disappointing nor magical; it was what it was: a new closeness. A shared secret.”