“And beauty has a quality all of its own that seems supreme; that seems above mere men with slaving ships and pistols...”

“There are no chains of houses; there are no crowds of men. The colossal diagram of streets and houses is an illusion, the opium dream of a speculative builder. Each of these men is supremely solitary and supremely important to himself. Each of these houses stands in the centre of the world. There is no single house of all those millions which has not seemed to someone at some time the heart of all things and the end of travel.”

“... it has always seemed to me that books are the supreme decorations of a room”

“There seems to me a thousand occasions when my soul knows more than it can tell, and a has a spirit of it's own which is far superior to my everyday one. It seems to me too, that men are far superior to all the books they write.”

“...quality of life lies in knowledge, in culture. Values are what constitute true quality of life, the supreme quality of life, even above food, shelter and clothing.”

“Everything new and beautiful seems to arrive already haunted by its own demise.”