“He thought that they were walking there like Mickey and Minnie Mouse and that they probably appeared ridiculous to the passers-by.”

“Whatever it was, he thought, whatever the strain and the agony, they were worth it, because they had made him reach this day”

“But those who were young had no thought left for spring and those who still thought were not young any longer.”

“He liked to observe emotions; they were like red lanterns strung along the dark unknown of another's personality, marking vulnerable points.”

“People, he thought, were as hungry for a sight of joy as he had always been--for a moment's relief from that gray load of suffering which seemed so inexplicable and unnecessary. He had never been able to understand why men should be unhappy.”

“For our face and body were beautiful. Our face was not like the faces of our brothers, for we felt not pity when looking upon it. Our body was not like the bodies of our brothers, for our limbs were straigth and thin and hard and strong. And we thought that we could trust this being who looked upon us from the stream, and that we had nothing to fear with this being.”

“He walked, groping for a sentence that hung in his mind as an empty shape. He could neither fill it or dismiss it.”