“To have a viable civilization, people have to have a benign government, a semblance of education, spare time, imagination, and manners”

“People…ladies, I mean…they dye their hair sometimes,” I explained to him. “So one day they have red hair and another day they have brown hair. It doesn’t matter,” I said. “They’re still the same lady.”

“The gentle art of gastronomy is a friendly one. It hurdles the language barrier, makes friends among civilized people, and warms the heart.”

“The man who won't loan money isn't going to have many friends - or need them.”

“If you have a friend, a good friend, a woman you love, and you learn she’s done something abominable, do you stop loving her?”

“Now Sam and Noelle were dead and I was about to lost my grandpa, and I knew I would never have that everything's-right-in-my-world feeling again.”

“Have compassion for everyone you meet, even if they don't want it. What seems conceit, bad manners, or cynicism is always a sign of things no ears have heard, no eyes have seen. You do not know what wars are going on down there where the spirit meets the bone.”