“The temptation was great to muster what force we could and put up a fight. It's the easiest way out, and the most satisfactory to self-respect--but, nearly invariably, the stupidest. ”

“All we could get out of them was that they were taking us to 'Kurokuma'. We didn't know if that was a place or a person. What does it mean, by the way?''I'm told it's a term of great respect,' Horace said, unwilling to admit that he didn't know.”

“Even in this world of course it is the stupidest children who are most childish and the stupidest grown-ups who are most grown-up.”

“The easiest way to be inscrutable is to be completely straightforward and honest. Then no one will be able to figure out what you’re up to.”

“The moment you have a self there is the temptation to put it forward, to put it first and at the center of things. And the more we are--socially or intellectually or politically or economically--the greater the risk of increasing self-worship.”

“People need self-respect, but self-respect must be earned -- it cannot be self-respect if it's not earned -- and the only way to earn anything is to achieve it in the face of the possibility of failing.”