“Long experience has taught me that people who do not like geraniums have something morally unsound about them. Sooner or later you will find them out; you will discover that they drink, or steal books, or speak sharply to cats. Never trust a man or a woman who is not passionately devoted to geraniums.”

“Well, I love geraniums, and anybody who does not love geraniums must obviously be a depraved and loathsome person.”

“Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.”

“Mr. Thornton," said Margaret, shaking all over with her passion, "go down this instant, if you are not a coward. Go down and face them like a man. Save these poor strangers, whom you have decoyed here. Speak to your workmen as if they were human beings. Speak to them kindly. Don't let the soldiers come in and cut down poor-creatures who are driven mad. I see one there who is. If you have any courage or noble quality in you, go out and speak to them, man to man.”

“There are exceptional people out there who are capable of starting epidemics. All you have to do is find them.”

“Sooner or later she'll figure out the truth: you're a shell of a man, all she has to do is knock against you to find out you're empty.”