“Do not carve on stone or wood,He was honest" or "He was good."Write in smoke on a passing breezeSeven words… and the words are these,Telling all that a volume could,He lived, he laughed and… he understood.”

“He was a simple honest man. He never strayed,He never drank, he never smoked, and he never kissed a maid.And when he passed away his insurance was denied,Because he never lived, they claimed he never died.”

“Weston did not know the Malacandrian word for laugh: indeed, it was not a word he understood very well in any language.”

“He had never been good at expressing himself. What he felt was so big it was difficult to find the words, and even if he could, it was hardly appropriate to write them to someone he had not contacted in twenty years.”

“He could tell her he loved her. He ached to shout it out loud for the gods and everyone to hear. Little good it would do. Better to trust in the moon's promises than in the word of the Thief of Eddis. He was famous in three countries for his lies.”

“He was never a man of many words but the look that he gave me spoke volumes saying what he felt in his heart”