“The difference between a politician and a statesman is that a politician thinks about the next election while the statesman think about the next generation.”

“The only thing more dangerous than a politician who thinks about re-election, is a politician who doesn't think about re-election.”

“We are either progressing or retrograding all the while there is no such thing as remaining stationary in this life.”

“When I consider what some books have done for the world, and what they are doing, how they keep up our hope, awaken new courage and faith, soothe pain, give an ideal life to those whose hours are cold and hard, bind together distant ages and foreign lands, create new worlds of beauty, bring down truth from heaven; I give eternal blessings for this gift, and thank God for books.”

“Now I know what a statesman is; he's a dead politician. We need more statesmen.”

“I should write a serious book on China. If I did that and put in a lot of subtext about love and maybe compared it to the Great Wall or communism or something I could show the parallels between how we are forced to act in society due to cultural mores, versus how we really are, like, behind our own personal Jungian Great Walls. Then people would take my writing seriously like they do with Marni and Tess and that guy who wrote the Great Gatsby.”

“Poor gentleman," said Mr Segundus. "Perhaps it is the age. It is not an age for magic or scholarship, is it sir? Tradesmen prosper, sailors, politicians, but not magicians. Our time is past.”