“It is also the pardonable vanity of lonely people everywhere to assume that they have no counterparts.”

“Beg pardon?" I detected large deposits of vanity. Vanity is the softest of bedrocks to sink shafts into.”

“I had always assumed the weekend was a holy tradition, respected by good people everywhere. Not so at Wexford.”

“If there is something to pardon in everything, there is also something to condemn”

“It's just as easy to be lonely in a city as out in the wilderness. Easier, really. It's harder to get to know someone when you meet in a crowded place. People can freely ignore you in the city; they can assume they don't have any responsibility for you. When there are fewer people, (...) they begin assuming some kind of responsibility, simply because you naturally do the same.”

“It is less mortifying to believe one's self unpopular than insignificant, and vanity prefers to assume that indifference is a latent form of unfriendliness.”