“Mr. Gilbert had the earnest mania for self-improvement which has blighted the lives of so many young men.”

“The attendant thinks it is some form of religious mania which has seized him. If so, we must look for squalls, for a strong man with homicidal and religious mania at once might be dangerous. The combination is a dreadful one.”

“Did you say the stars were worlds, Tess?""Yes.""All like ours?""I don't know, but I think so. They sometimes seem to be like the apples on our stubbard-tree. Most of them splendid and sound - a few blighted.""Which do we live on - a splendid one or a blighted one?""A blighted one.”

“Was it not his Self, his small, fearful and proud Self, with which he had wrestled for so many years, but which had always conquered him again, which appeared each time again and again, which robbed him of happiness and filled him with fear?”

“A small but noteworthy note. I've seen so many young men over the years who think they're running at other young men. They are not. They are running at me.”

“While civilization has been improving our houses, it has not equally improved the men who are to inhabit them”