“All anybody needs to know about prizes is that Mozart never won one.”

“The sooner the gardener loses certain kinds of innocence the better, and there is no better place to begin than with the weather.”

“Of all the properties which belong to honorable men, not one is so highly prized as that of character.”

“No one asks you to throw Mozart out of the window. Keep Mozart. Cherish him. Keep Moses too, and Buddha and Lao Tzu and Christ. Keep them in your heart. But make room for the others, the coming ones, the ones who are already scratching on the window-panes.”

“Times never change when there's a need for honest work to be done.”

“I want to make you faint. I will make you faint. You've had this coming to you for years. None of the fools you've known have kissed you like this - have they? Your precious Charles or Frank or your stupid Ashley... I said your stupid Ashley. Gentlemen all - what do they know about women? What do they know about you? I know you.”

“Torturous advances won over generations can be lost by a single stroke of a myopic president's pen or a vainglorious general's sword.”